The grants—awarded as part of the PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning Program—are given in overlapping two-year cohorts. Authors and working titles for the current cohort include:
“PALSave Textbook Creation Grants support our mission to expand open educational resources and reduce costs for students,” says Amanda Hurford, PALNI Scholarly Communications Director and PALSave Program Lead. “With the support of PALNI libraries—through engagement, project guidance, and publishing services—these faculty authors are creating high-quality, accessible textbooks that help students succeed and advance a culture of open education across Indiana and beyond.”
Supported by Lilly Endowment Inc., the PALSave Affordable Learning Program drives student success through zero-cost learning materials by funding faculty to review, adopt, adapt, and create OER across Indiana’s private colleges. PALNI recently received a $1.34 million grant to launch the next phase of this transformative work. The four-year initiative, Strengthening the PALSave Affordable Learning Program for Greater Impact, builds on PALSave’s success in reducing textbook costs, expanding access to learning materials, and empowering faculty to advance open educational practices.
Since its inception in 2019, PALSave has published 13 open textbooks through the Textbook Creation Grant program. These resources become freely available on the web, reducing costs to students enrolled in courses in the future.
The PALNI Open Press Advisory Board and PALSave Team select projects for funding based on proposal quality, clearly defined goals, need within the current open access body of work, and adoption potential within PALNI schools and beyond.
PALNI coordinates peer review, copyediting, layout, and hosting services to assist grant recipients in their textbook creation. Each textbook is also supported by a project manager from a PALNI library to monitor progress and answer questions throughout development. For the current cohort, project management support is provided by Aleshia Heckel of Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, Emily Helton of PALNI, Anissa Martin of Taylor University, and Anna Schittone of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College. The open textbooks are published on the PALNI Open Press-supported Pressbooks platform alongside other faculty-contributed works and are ultimately submitted to the Open Textbook Library and OER repositories.
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Lilly Endowment Inc. is an Indianapolis-based, private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family — J.K. Lilly Sr. and sons J.K. Jr. and Eli — through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, the Endowment is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education and religion and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. More information can be found at www.lillyendowment.org.
The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is a non-profit organization that supports collaboration for library and information services for 23 colleges, universities and seminaries throughout the state. From its inception in 1992, the PALNI collaboration has been a key avenue for its supported institutions to contain costs while providing more effective library services. More recently, PALNI has adopted a model of deep collaboration that pools resources and people as a tool to expand services while containing costs. Simultaneously, PALNI is expanding collaboration within its institutions and with external library partners to address challenges and build cost-effective services. Visit the PALNI website for more information. (www.palni.org)
Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary | Anderson University | Bethel University | Butler University | Concordia Theological Seminary | Christian Theological Seminary | DePauw University | Earlham College | Franklin College | Goshen College | Grace College | Hanover College | Huntington University | Manchester University | Marian University | University of Saint Francis | Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College | Saint Mary’s College | Saint Meinrad’s Seminary and School of Theology | Taylor University | Trine University | University of Indianapolis | Wabash College