From Closed to Open: Laboring to Revert Rights and Republish Existing Works

This presentation was delivered at the 2024 Open Education Conference in Providence, Rhode Island.

Rights-reversion is a powerful tool for broadening access to books which are still-in-demand but paywalled or out-of-print. Converting these works to Open Educational Resources (OER) broadens their availability and meets reader and instructional needs while utilizing existing workflows used by those who create open textbooks. This presentation describes rights reversion, presents multiple case studies, documents the labor involved in rights-reversion and re-publishing workflows, and provides tips and tools for working with authors and publisher-copyright-holders.

Attendees of this session will be able to: -Articulate a summary of what rights reversion is. -Describe what makes something an Open Educational Resource (OER) -Explain rationale for including rights-reversion-to-OER as part of their publishing program -Describe why rights-reversion-to-OER might add value to the communities they serve, and similarities and differences to what they might already do in their community or institution

A recording of this session is available at: https://youtu.be/zvjNtRt7sng?feature=shared