The theme for this year’s Open Access week (October 19–25) is “The Cost of Knowledge.” Here in the Five Colleges we are feeling that heavy cost as we lose one of our own, Hampshire College. This semester is their last and the loss of the truly unique and stellar institution is incalculable. For this month’s What am I Reading in ScholarWorks? I’m highlighting the textbook Calculus in Context. This textbook originated out of a course at Hampshire College, it was developed into a textbook as a Five College project through an NSF grant. Six years ago the textbook was added to ScholarWorks’ collection of Open Educational Resources (OER) and in the intervening years had more than 8,000 downloads. This summer, the authors came together to revise, update, and enhance the textbook making it available not only as a new edition, but it now includes the source files thereby fully realizing its OER potential. To honor and acknowledge the essential role of Hampshire College, the subtitle “The Five College Calculus Project” was added. I hope you take the time to explore this textbook, even if it's just for the story of its creation found in the Preface and Afterword to the text. Calculus in Context is an exemplar of what is possible when we collaborate, have institutions that break “presumptive” molds and explore new ways to approach pedagogy, and a democratic government that funds sciences. It is bittersweet to celebrate this updated publication while reverting to four colleges. The “cost of knowledge” is not simply a monetary question. It’s also about access, control, and values. On this 16th annual Open Access week, let’s celebrate our wins, mourn our loses, and recommit ourselves to innovative and collective solutions that open scholarly excellence affords us all.

View in ScholarWorks: Calculus in Context

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See Smith’s Open Education Resources research guide.

Smith ScholarWorks is Smith’s institutional repository of digital scholarship and research materials created and curated by faculty, students, and staff at Smith College. Browse by collections, disciplines, and authors.