SEDIMENTARY GEOLOGY: ROCKS, ENVIRONMENTS AND STRATIGRAPHY - A NEW, OPEN-ACCESS TEXTBOOK FOR UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Although there are several traditional textbook options for undergraduate courses in sedimentology and/or stratigraphy, they often present challenges: (a) they are generally too long for the combined sedimentology and stratigraphy courses common today, (b) have few or no high-quality color images or diagrams, and (c) they are restricted by vague or limiting copyright policies.

To address some of these issues, we created Sedimentary Geology: Rocks, Environments and Stratigraphy – an open-access textbook hosted in the LibreTexts Geosciences Library. This book is shared via a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0) so that anyone can modify, copy, or distribute the material (even commercially) provided that they give appropriate credit, specify whether the material was modified, and release any derivative products under the same license as the original. The book is built around hundreds of high-quality images and diagrams; we provide a modicum of text to convey basic information and to serve as a starting point for conversations. The images and diagrams used in the book come from our personal collections of photos and illustrations on Wikimedia Commons (also released via a CC BY-SA license) or from other sources that were shared with comparable licenses (Flickr, Pixabay, government sources, etc.).

Our approach does have its limitations and challenges. The lack of formal copy-editing requires the author to continually correct and revise the text. Suggestions by colleagues can improve content and identify errors, one must balance their own voice and choices with the preferences and perspectives of others. In cases where a significant difference of opinion exists, it is best for others to adapt the text as they see fit and re-release their own modified version (think “Taylor’s Version”). By minimizing license restrictions, we maximize utility for users, though this means accepting that the content can be used by anyone for anything that they like - our work can be found in everything from trade magazines, to blogs, to traditional textbooks, to young Earth creationist websites.

Although projects like this fall outside of traditional academic performance metrics, they show that the broader geoscience community benefits when we share our work more, and more freely.