Open & Affordable Educational Resources

OpenBU, Boston University's institutional repository, provides access and preservation to the University's intellectual and creative output, including educational materials and course content. OpenBU is an open access repository, which means that the majority of the works collected there are freely accessible and discoverable to the world via the web. For more information about OpenBU and a detailed list of the benefits of sharing your work in OpenBU, see our OpenBU Overview.

OpenBU vs. My Media, YouTube, Your Own Website

In comparison to other platforms, OpenBU provides an open, stable place to share your work and preserve it for the long term.

• My Media powered by Kaltura is a platform for sharing audiovisual materials within the BU community; its integration with BU's learning management systems makes it easy to share materials in BU courses. However, if you would like to make your course content openly available outside of BU, OpenBU, as an open access repository, is the place to do that.
• Unlike YouTube and personal websites, OpenBU creates permanent links to your work, has no advertisements, and makes your work findable in Google Scholar. Since OpenBU is maintained by Boston University as its institutional repository, it can provide a permanent home for your work, so you'll never have to worry about links changing or your work disappearing.

Submit to OpenBU

Submit educational materials to OpenBU with this simple web form.

The BU Libraries Digital Scholarship Services (DiSc) can provide advice and support on the copyright and licensing of your course content.

• If you have used third-party materials in your course content, we can advise you on permissions, licenses, and fair use.
• When you make your course content openly available in OpenBU, you have the option of applying a Creative Commons license to your materials, which helps explain how others may re-use the materials and under which conditions. We can support you in selecting a license.
• If you have created works that involved the use of significant BU resources, you may need to consult with any relevant stakeholders before deciding how you would make these works openly available, and under what terms. We can assist in these conversations.

Contact disc@bu.edu to set up a copyright or licensing consultation.

Please note that consultations should not be considered legal advice. Consultations are for educational purposes. As librarians, we are here to give you information so that you can make an informed decision.

Barbara Maratos
Literature & Languages Librarian
bkmarato@bu.edu