New and Noteworthy is the City Tech Library OER Team’s 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. 

Remote Teaching Resources

1. Zoom Backgrounds, by Pam Wishbow (2020). License: CC BY-NC-ND.
   “It’s been a hard time here in the first and now second quarters of 2020, working from home presents it’s own challenges and some of those are ‘wow my house is a mess.’ With work meetings still going for many I thought I would do what I can to help those to hide what they want from their coworkers or families.”

Arts & Sciences 

1. Action Research, Kansas State University (2020). License: CC BY-NC.
   “The primary purpose of this book is to offer clear steps and practical guidance to those who intend to carry out action research for the first time. As educators begin their action research journey, we feel it is vital to pose four questions: 1) What is action research, and how is it distinct from other educational research?; 2) When is it appropriate for an educator to conduct an action research project in their context?; 3) How does an educator conduct an action research project?; 4) What does an educator do with the data once the action research project has been conducted? We have attempted to address all four questions in the chapters of this book.”
   
2. The Art of Being Human: A Textbook for Cultural Anthropology, by Michael Wesch, Kansas State University (2018). License: CC BY-NC-SA.
   “Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that. “Anthropology requires strength, valor, and courage,” Nancy Scheper-Hughes noted. […] You will find ideas that can carry you across rivers of doubt and over mountains of fear to find the light and life of places forgotten. Real anthropology cannot be contained in a book. You have to go out and feel the world’s jagged edges, wipe its dust from your brow, and at times, leave your blood in its soil. In this unique book, Dr. Michael Wesch shares many of his own adventures of being an anthropologist and what the science of human beings can tell us about the art of being human. It serves as a companion to anth101.com, a free and open resource for instructors of cultural anthropology.”

Professional Studies

1. Fundamentals of Business, third edition, by Stephen J. Skripak and Ron Poff, Pamplin College of Business, in association with Virginia Tech Publishing (2020). License: CC BY-NC-SA.
   “A 370-page open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, and personal finances.”
   
2. Global Business, by Jacobus Boers, University System of Georgia (2020). License: CC BY.
   “Topics covered include the global context of business, currency, supply chains, legal systems, culture and values, financial markets, economic complexity, global value chains, experts, and global competition. A revision of Global Business is currently in development to include the effects of a pandemic on geopolitical and supply-chain dynamics.”

Technology & Design

1. Affordances and the Potential for Architecture, by Bob Condia, Andrea Jelić, Harry Francis Mallgrave, Sarah Robinson, and James R. Hamilton, New Prairie Press (2020). License: CC BY-NC-SA.
   “Affordances and the Potential for Architecture divulges our engagement with the built environment is a deeply rooted experience. In a biological and philosophical sense, it reveals that the mind is inseparable from the body, just as the body is inseparable from its environment. The world displays itself before us as rife with potential movements, activities, engagements, for which we continuously rehearse the myriad possibilities and choose the best course of action in the moment. It defines our phenomenological natures through this readiness-for-action, and thereby suggests we will improve the spaces, buildings, and landscapes that we inhabit by mastering how we enact and perceive them. This concise manuscript proposes affordances as an important contribution to thinking about architecture, space, and perception. To be sure, Architecture is not an object but something we do.”
   
2. The Web, Publishing, and Ourselves, by Sophie Mackenzie and Juan Pablo Alperin, SFU Publishing (2020). License: CC BY-NC.
   “The Web, Publishing, and Ourselves is a new open textbook that critically explores the relationship between technology and publishing, as well as the many ways in which technologies are shaping our personal lives.”

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