1. Just wanted to describe our one experience at the Dalhousie Libraries producing an open textbook. The circumstances that led to this project were a little unusual. But it made this project a little easier for us to get started on.
This text already had 5 editions in print
Author passed away in 2015 just after finishing the 6th edition; It was scheduled to be published by Oxford UP. But after the author’s death, OUP decided not to publish.
Widow feared that the book would be shelved, she approached OUP and asked them transfer rights to the estate to ensure the work had a future. OUP agreed and transferred all files on a USB to the widow.
When the author's materials were donated to our University Archives, the textbook files were part of that acquisition.
Shortly after the material was transferred to the Archives, I was approached about options for turning the manuscript into a textbook.
I wanted it to be an open textbook and this was totally in line with what the donor wanted. She wanted the book to live on.

2. The manuscript cam to me as 28 MS Word files
Everything was nicely formatted but it needed to be migrated into another platform for online delivery and ongoing management

3.
Colleague Roger Gillis Digital Humanities Librarian at Dal Librraies installed a copy of PressBooks with help from our library IT dept.
I decided to migrate the text into Pressbooks
Pressbooks is a purpose built book publishing platform used by many other universities. Our installation is located at digitaleditions.library.dal.ca
Critical part of the project enabling us to convert the textbook for online delivery and various downloadable formats

4. This is the Environmental Science textbook as it appears online

5. Or it can be downloaded … EPUB, PDF, Mobi and XML versions available

6. This is what the epub looks like on a tablet

7. This is the PDF as it appears on a laptop

8. This is what the book look like when exported as XML
This file makes it easier to import the book into another Pressbooks site to be adapted

9. We also have downloadable copies in DalSpace where it is preserved … and more accessible via Google

10. Our version is the only edition available online; the others are available in print in the library

11. The book is also included in Worldcat, the largest publicly available catalogue of library collections.

13. It is included in the BC Campus OpenEd catalogue

14. So hopefully we’ve checked most of the boxes with this project
Free
Open
Flexible … Available in multiple formats both online and downloadable with no digital locks
Widely available