Open Access Textbooks
Open access (OA) textbooks are freely available, openly licensed digital textbooks that anyone can read, download, share, or adapt at no cost. Unlike traditional textbooks—which are limited by restrictive copyright and often expensive—open access textbooks remove barriers for both instructors and students.
Even when a course does not officially assign an OA textbook, students can still use them as supplemental study resources to deepen understanding or explore topics from additional perspectives.
Open Access Textbooks at the University of South Florida
USF supports the creation, adoption, and use of open access learning materials as part of its ongoing commitment to textbook affordability and student success.
The USF Libraries maintain a growing collection of open access textbooks in USF Digital Commons, the University’s institutional repository. These textbooks are:
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Free to access worldwide
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Suitable for higher education
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Written by experts (many authored by USF faculty)
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Available for anyone to read, download, or reuse
Current subject areas include mathematics, journalism, academic writing, and behavioral research—and the collection continues to expand.
USF Digital Commons welcomes submissions from all authors, regardless of institutional affiliation. If you have authored an open access textbook and would like it to be included in the collection, you are invited to contribute.
For questions, assistance, or information about submitting a textbook, please contact the USF Digital Commons team.
Open Access Textbook Repositories
Name Description
American Institute of Mathematics Open Textbook Initiative A list of open access mathematics textbooks that have been evaluated and approved for use in a traditional university course. The American Institute of Mathematics Editorial Board has developed evaluation criteria to identify the books that are suitable for use in traditional university courses. The Editorial Board maintains a list of Approved Textbooks which have been judged to meet these criteria.
Subjects (# of Titles): Mathematics (30)
Gutenburg Project Free downloads of books in the public domain (published before 1923)..
Subjects: Arts, Computer Science, Earth Science, Engineering, Health Science, Humanities, Mathematics, Physical Science, Social Science
Internet Archive A non-profit with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Over 6,000,000 fully accessible public domain eBooks are available.
Subjects (# of Titles): Historical (6,000,000)
MERLOT II A free, peer reviewed collection of online teaching and learning materials and faculty-developed services.It is maintained by the California State University System.
Subjects (# of Titles): Arts (1,703), Business (5,124), Education (6,953), Humanities (6,879), Mathematics (3,804), Science (18,024), Social Science (4,325)
OER Commons A digital content hub of teaching and learning materials freely available for everyone to use, whether you are a teacher or a learner. This includes full courses, modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.
Subjects (# of Titles): Arts (3,239), Business (1,401), Humanities (14,576), Mathematics (11,558), Sciences (22,482), Social Science (11,774)
Open CourseWare Initiative A web-based publication of virtually all Massachusetts Institute of Technology course content. It is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity.
Subjects: Business, Education, Energy, Engineering, Fine Arts, Health, Humanities, Mathematics, Science, Social Science, Sociology
Open Doar - Open Access A directory of academic open access repositories. Each repository has been visited by project staff to check the information that is recorded there. This in-depth approach does not rely on automated analysis and gives a quality-controlled list of repositories. It is maintained by SHERPA Services at the University of Nottingham.
Subjects: All
Open Textbook Library An online library to help instructors find affordable, quality open access textbook solutions. All textbooks in this library are complete and openly licensed.It is partnered with the University of Minnesota, BC Campus, and Perdue University.
Subjects (# of Titles): Accounting (5), Business (31), Economics (11), Education (5), Humanities (9), Law (26), Mathematics (30), Physical Science (24), Social Science (9), Technology (14)
OpenStax CNX A website to view and share free educational material in small modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports or other academic assignments.It is supported by William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 20 Million Minds Foundation, Maxfield Foundation, Open Society Foundations, and Rice University.
Subjects (# of Titles): Arts (1,458), Business (39), Humanities (119), Mathematics (26), Social Science (155), Technology (84)
USF Digital Commons Open Access Textbooks Textbooks submitted to this collection are free and available to anyone, but are best suited for higher education.
Subjects: Behavioral Research, Journalism, Mathematics, Writing