Practice Article

OER as Dynamic Digital Commons: Toward Maintenance and Governance

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Abstract

Introduction: Academic libraries have been instrumental in supporting the creation and adoption of open educational resources (OER), yet current approaches rely on imagining the possibilities of OER as static documents like traditional books. This conceptualization places unsustainable burdens on the labor of individual authors, particularly in rapidly evolving fields where knowledge changes quickly. We argue for an alternative conceptualization of OER as a dynamic digital commons, requiring ongoing maintenance and governance.

Literature Review: The article provides a review of existing literature on OER maintenance and governance and their support by academic libraries, in conversation with the literature on maintenance practices for other kinds of digital commons, specifically open source software. This review reveals that while the OER ecosystem has focused primarily on creation and adoption, crucial gaps remain in supporting ongoing maintenance, including overreliance on siloed, voluntary academic labor.

Description of Case: We present an autoethnographic case study about challenges in maintaining relevance in a dynamic OER about social media and then trying and failing to share authorship and maintenance. This case demonstrates how individual authors face overwhelming maintenance responsibilities that threaten professional advancement, while current support mechanisms fail to enable collaborative labor sharing. We reflect on three critical obstacles: funding limited to initial creation and one-way adoption, technological platforms lacking collaborative features, and user cultures expecting passive consumption rather than participation.

Next Steps: The article offers examples and strategies for improved library support for OER maintenance in three channels: Organize economic flows supporting maintenance; advocate upstream revision affordances in platform technologies; and coordinate knowledge infrastructures to shift expectations from passive book use to commons participation.

Keywords: digital commons, governance, OER, open educational resources, open source, maintenance, social media, stakeholder engagement, textbooks

How to Cite:

Daly, D., Ahmad, H. & Schneider, N. (2026). OER as Dynamic Digital Commons: Toward Maintenance and Governance. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication, 14(1), eP20076. https://doi.org/ 10.31274/jlsc.20076

Rights:

© 2026 The Author(s). License: CC BY 4.0