New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team’s bi-weekly roundup of new and noteworthy OER. We try to include at least one OER relevant to each school at City Tech in every post. At the end of the month, these resources will be compiled and distributed by the library liaison for your department. Please contact us if you know of new or particularly interesting OER.to share with our colleagues or would like more information about OER initiatives at City Tech.

Arts & Sciences 

1. Advanced Public Speaking, by Lynn Meade, University of Arkansas (2021). License: CC BY
   “This advanced public speaking textbook is designed to encourage you as a speaker and to help you sharpen your skills. It is written to feel like you are sitting with a trusted mentor over coffee as you receive practical advice on speaking. Grow in confidence, unleash your personal power and find your unique style as you learn to take your speaking to the next level–polished and professional.”
   

2. Genetics, Agriculture, and Biotechnology, by Walter Suza, Iowa State University & Donald Lee, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
   “This textbook provides an introduction to plant genetics and biotechnology for the advancement of agriculture. A clear and structured introduction to the topic for learners new to the field of genetics, the book includes: an introduction to the life cycle of the cell, DNA and how it relates to genes and chromosomes, DNA analysis, recombinant DNA, biotechnology, and transmission genetics.”
   
   
3. Climate Lessons: Environmental, Social, Local, by Marja Bakermans, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2021). License: CC BY-NC
   “Anthropogenic climate change is one of the, if not the most, pressing issues of our times. The problems that it causes range across many social and environmental domains from habitat and species loss and displacement to the more human and social concerns and issues of access to water, sea level rise that affects coastal communities, to economic degradation as a result of the aforementioned and other connected issues such as increased frequency of storms, droughts, wildfires, and the like. […] This book was co-authored by undergraduate students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute while exploring the influences of Earth systems and human systems on climate change and the communities at most risk in an interdisciplinary project-based first year course. This course attempts to bring together knowledge of the science of ecological and climate systems and their changing status with knowledge of the social and communal structures within which these systems are embedded and through which they have been influenced. The book highlights key interests and insights of current students in their quest to think through these issues and to create a better world.” 

Professional Studies

1. A Long Goodbye: Ed and Mary’s Journey with Lewy Body Dementia, by Adele Baldwin; Stephen Anderson; Michael Inskip; Kellie Johns; David Lindsay; Bronwyn Mathiesen; and Marie Bodak, James Cook University (2021). License: CC BY-NC-ND
   “This book, built around Ed’s journal, chronicles Ed’s experiences as a carer following his wife Mary’s diagnosis with Lewy body dementia.  Students and experienced health professionals are rarely afforded such an insight into how their words and actions are interpreted by, and impact upon patients, families and friends. Ed’s Story provides information and education resources related to dementia care.  Although specifically focusing on Lewy body dementia, the resources are transferable to caring for people with any type of dementia. The freely available resources are suitable for use by students in the health professions, educators, formal and informal carers.”
   
   
2. Human Resources in the Food Service and Hospitality Industry, by The BC Cook Articulation Committee, BC Campus (2015). License: CC BY
   “Human Resources in the Food Services and Hospitality Industry is one of a series of Culinary Arts open textbooks developed to support the training of students and apprentices in British Columbia’s foodservice and hospitality industry. Although created with the Professional Cook, Baker and Meat cutter programs in mind, these have been designed as a modular series, and therefore can be used to support a wide variety of programs that offer training in food service skills.”
   
   
3. Introduction to Entrepreneurship, by Katherine Carpenter, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (2021). License: CC BY-NC-SA
   “Learn about entrepreneurship and what makes entrepreneurs successful, all while developing your entrepreneurial skills.”
   
   
4. Nursing Fundamentals, by Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN), Chippewa Valley Technical College (2021). License: CC BY
   “This book introduces the entry-level nursing student to the scope of nursing practice, various communication techniques, and caring for diverse patients. The nursing process is used as a framework for providing patient care based on the following nursing concepts: safety, oxygenation, comfort, spiritual well-being, grief and loss, sleep and rest, mobility, nutrition, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, and elimination. Care for patients with integumentary disorders and cognitive or sensory impairments is also discussed. Learning activities have been incorporated into each chapter to encourage students to use critical thinking while applying content to patient care situations.”
   

Technology & Design

1. Architecture as a Way of Seeing and Learning: The built environment as an added educator in East African refugee camps, by Nerea Amorós Elorduy (2021). License: All Rights Reserved. Open Access publication to share and read.
   “Presents an architect’s take on questions many academics and humanitarians ask. Is it relevant to look at camps through an urban lens and focus on their built environment? Which analytical benefits can architectural and design tools provide to refugee assistance and specifically to young children’s learning? And which advantages can assemblage thinking and situated knowledges bring about in analysing, understanding and transforming long-term refugee camps?…Crossing architecture, humanitarian aid and early childhood development, this book offers many practical learnings.”
   
   
2. Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals, by Graphic Communications Open Textbook Collective, BCCampus. License: CC BY
   “This textbook — written by a group of select experts — addresses the many steps of creating and then producing physical, printed, or other imaged products that people interact with on a daily basis. It covers the concept that, while most modern graphic design is created on computers using design software, the ideas and concepts don’t stay on the computer. The ideas need to be completed in the computer software, then progress to an imaging (traditionally referred to as printing) process…Each chapter includes exercises and suggested readings.”
   
   
3. Technology, Media Literacy, and the Human Subject: A Posthuman Approach, by Richard S. Lewis, Open Book Publishers (2021). License: CC BY
   “Informed by postphenomenology, media ecology, philosophical posthumanism, and complexity theory the author proposes both a framework and a pragmatic instrument for understanding the multiplicity of relations that all contribute to how we affect—and are affected by—our relations with media technology.”
   
   
4. Introduction to Communication Systems: An Interactive Approach Using the Wolfram Language, by Victor S. Frost, University of Kansas (2021). License: CC BY-NC
   “This ebook provides a unique pedagogical approach to teaching the fundamentals of communication systems using interactive graphics and in-line questions. […] Interactive graphics allow the students to engage with and visualize communication systems concepts. Interactivity and in-line review questions enables students to rapidly examine system tradeoffs and design alternatives. The topics covered build upon each other culminating with an introduction to the implementation of OFDM transmitters and receivers, the ubiquitous technology used in WiFi, 4G and 5G communication systems.”
   

Cailean Cooney, Assistant Professor, OER Librarian: ccooney@citytech.cuny.edu
Rena Grossman, Adjunct OER Librarian: rgrossman@citytech.cuny.edu
Joshua Peach, Adjunct Reference & OER Librarian: jpeach@citytech.cuny.edu
Joanna Thompson, Adjunct OER Librarian: jthompson@citytech.cuny.edu