INDIANAPOLIS—The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is pleased to announce the release of “Culturas y Civilizaciones de los Países Hispanos (Cultures and Civilizations of the Hispanic Countries),” by Angela Pacheco-Gonzalez, Ph.D.
This open textbook, made possible through a Textbook Creation Grant from the PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning program, aims to broaden cultural representation in the academic curriculum.
“Never before have we had such widespread access to learning tools as we do today, which is an exciting development for education,” says Pacheco-Gonzalez. “At the same time, I believe organizations like PALNI represent the future of accessible educational resources for students. While technology and online materials offer great benefits, professional curators are still essential to organize and present this knowledge in a coherent and meaningful way for future generations. I am deeply grateful to the team at PALNI for their dedication to making these resources available to both professors and students worldwide — and for ensuring they are easy to access and free to use.”
Pacheco-Gonzalez, formerly of Taylor University, received a PALSave Textbook Creation Grant for the project in 2023. Offered to faculty from PALNI-supported institutions, the grant allows educators to develop open textbooks that are freely available online, making them part of a global effort to reduce the cost of course materials for college students. Each grant provides a maximum of $6,500 per project or $5,000 per author. Currently, there are 14 grant-funded titles published or in production through PALNI.
“The PALSave team is thrilled to support this meaningful project through the PALSave Textbook Creation Grant,” says Amanda Hurford, PALNI Scholarly Communications Director and PALSave program lead. “Pacheco-Gonzalez’s dedication to open access ensures that students and educators alike can benefit from a high-quality, culturally rich resource without financial barriers.”
Project Manager Jennifer Coronado, Head of Resource & Systems Strategies at Butler University, also supported the book’s creation.
“Culturas y Civilizaciones de los Países Hispanos” by Angela Pacheco-Gonzalez is available for free through the PALNI Open Press.
Visit PALSave: PALNI Affordable Learning online to learn more about Textbook Creation Grants and other OER opportunities offered through PALNI.
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PALNI's PALSave Textbook Creation Grant Program awards funding to faculty members from PALNI-supported institutions to create open textbooks.
Faculty are periodically invited to submit creation grant proposals for the courses they teach. Textbooks may cover any discipline at the undergraduate or postgraduate level. PALNI seeks proposals for textbooks geared toward specific fields of study that meet the inclusion criteria for the Open Textbook Library. Projects are selected 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 local project manager to monitor progress and answer questions throughout development. 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. Visit the PALSave website to learn more: palni.org/palsave.
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)
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