At the University Libraries we’ve always been committed to the principle of access—access to information across a wide spectrum of disciplines in service to the Virginia Tech community. Today this commitment to access remains stronger than ever, further emboldened by the advent of new technologies that make possible unprecedented distribution of knowledge via the Internet, free of charge to all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds throughout the world.

We believe that openness is the future of higher education. Openness ensures greater dissemination, inclusiveness, and integrity for the advancement of knowledge and the education of the next generation. While not all knowledge can be open, we believe that the vast majority can and should be.

This booklet introduces a few of the many open resources you can find in and through the Library. The first section, “For Scholars,” highlights the wealth of open scholarship in the Library’s collections as well as tools we make available to researchers for writing and publishing open scholarship. The second section, “For Instructors and Students,” focuses on tools and resources specifically aimed at making learning accessible, abundant, and customizable for all.