Open Educational Resources

• For a textbook designed specifically for CUNY students, see Amy Traver’s (Queensborough Community College) Introduction to Sociology Textbook

• In partnership with Rice University, OpenStax hosts Introduction to Sociology 3e that was published in 2021

• The University of Minnesota hosts and curates Open Textbook Library that with a number of excellent open access textbooks in sociology

2. e-Books

• Project Gutenberg provides one of the most comprehensive collection of open access eBooks

• Internet Archive Library is a non-profit library of licensed books, movies, among other materials

3. Newspaper Access

• CUNY students and faculty have complementary access to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. To subscribe, students should go to the links embedded up and use their cuny.edu email accounts to sing up. Please note that they will be required to input their graduation date at which time their subscription will expire. If their graduation date is postponed, they can re-activate their subscription using the same process.

• The Guardian is a 200 year-old, internationally respected newspaper that covers both current events and runs series on sociological topics such as inequalities, labor politics, gender issues, climate change, among others. There are no subscription fees. Although registration is recommended, contents can be accessed without registration.

• The Conversation publishes short articles written by scholars for the general public. It is hosted by “a nonprofit, independent news organization dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of experts for the public good” (About). Terrific resource!

• Science Daily aggregates press releases science, including latest research in social and behavioral sciences.

4. Library

Ursula C. Schwerin Library not only enables access to resources, but also provides much needed help for the students:

• Students can chat with our librarians 24 hours a day, 7 days a week using Ask a Library function or emailing their questions by filling out a form.
• Students can also arrange one-on-one research consultations with librarians.
• A handy tutorial provides a useful overview of library services.
• Instructors can also request library instruction sessions (guest lectures) on information literacy and library resources both in synchronous and asynchronous formats.
• The library is located on the 4th floor of Library Building (adjacent to Namm)

5. Other Resources

• Included with the 3rd edition of their Introduction to Sociology textbook, Open Stax’ Instructor Resources include additional materials.

• If you are looking for resources to teach on various issues related to Covid-19 (along with other disasters), check out the Teach 311+Covid-19 Collective website.

• SOC 3302: Environmental Sociology provides open educational resources such as podcasts, videos, educator tools for teaching on environmental topics along with the syllabus and weekly assignments. Among many other podasts, blogs, and educational tools, the website provides links to such resources as the food radio station entitled the Heritage Radio Network.

• And then there is Ted Talks that hosts a number of terrific presentations that can be combined with readings and other assignments.