The Library publishes open educational resources (OERs) and open access textbooks to reduce the cost of higher education for students. We work with PSU faculty to publish high-quality open access textbooks designed specifically for their courses that are free to students at our university and to anyone in the world.
Learn More: Open Access Textbooks
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Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry
Jason Gary Damron and Vicki L. Reitenauer
Gender and Sexualities: An Inquiry was created to accompany UNST 231 Sophomore Inquiry: Gender and Sexualities at Portland State University.
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Spatial Thinking in Planning Practice: An Introduction to GIS
Yiping Fang, Vivek Shandas, and Eugenio Arriaga Cordero
The goals of this textbook are to help students acquire the technical skills of using software and managing a database, and develop research skills of collecting data, analyzing information and presenting results. We emphasize that the need to investigate the potential and practicality of GIS technologies in a typical planning setting and evaluate its possible applications. GIS may not be necessary (or useful) for every planning application, and we anticipate these readings to provide the necessary foundation for discerning its appropriate use. Therefore, this textbook attempts to facilitate spatial thinking focusing more on open-ended planning questions, which require judgment and exploration, while developing the analytical capacity for understanding a variety of local and regional planning challenges.
While this textbook provides the background for understanding the concepts in GIS as applicable to urban and regional planning, it is best when accompanied by a hands-on tutorial, which will enable readers to develop an in-depth understanding of the specific planning applications of GIS. Chapters in this text book are either composed by the editors using Creative Common materials, or linked to a book chapter scanned copy in the library reserve. In the end of each chapter, we also provided several discussion questions, together with contextual applications through some web links.
Please see the Open Textbook Library for faculty Reviews of this textbook
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Preadvanced Japanese
Emiko Konomi
This textbook is designed for students who have intermediate competency in Japanese, roughly at Level 2 on the ILR (The Interagency Language Roundtable) proficiency scale, and are working on reaching Level 3.
This textbook can be used for self-study, as part of online course, and in a traditional classroom setting. It is comprised of four chapters, intended to be covered in one term of a quarter system.
Please see the Open Textbook Library for faculty Reviews of this textbook
If you are an instructor adopting or adapting this PDXOpen textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out this form: https://forms.gle/sFg1WJhMvUzLh7ZE7