Research
Many scholars at the University of Toronto are placing the products of their scholarly work in the public domain. In fact, an increasing number of funding agencies now require this as a condition of receiving funds. UofT assists its scholars in this endeavour by providing hosting and discovery services* through the Library.
Focus On Research
Focus on Research (FoR) is a gateway to the researchers, publications, and research communities at the University of Toronto. Focus on Research makes it easier for researchers to find collaborators, and for students to find mentors. A FoR profile lists research interests, projects, websites, and works and it can also link to online publications. FoR also features RSS feeds to include your FoR profile into any other website.
TSpace
TSpace is a free and secure research repository established by University of Toronto Libraries to disseminate and preserve the scholarly record of the University of Toronto community, including faculty and graduate student research.Items in TSpace have priority search engine indexing and are assigned permanent URLs to ensure links to submitted material always work.
All items in TSpace are openly accessible, either immediately or after publisher’s embargo period. Many items are also licensed with an optional, legally binding, Creative Commons license to further define appropriate use such as educational use only, share and share alike, etc. Please visit the site to learn more and to access these resources.
UofT School of Graduate Studies Theses Collection Online
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) are theses or dissertations prepared as text-based PDF files. ETDs can contain non-text elements such as sound, video, and hypertext links. ETDs are available through T-Space, the University’s digital library repository, and also released to the world-wide web with priority in many search engines, enabling scholars worldwide to locate, search, and download U of T’s ETDs.
MOOC Research and Evaluation
The University of Toronto is committed to exploring new ways of teaching and sharing knowledge in the 21st Century, and its participation in the two Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms Coursera and EdX are an essential part of this.
UTL Journal Production Services
A growing number of Open-access journals are being published at UofT – scholarly journals that are available online to the reader without financial, legal, or technical barriers. The University of Toronto Libraries runs a service for individuals and groups to manage and publish electronic journals, from submissions through peer review, to online publication. The vast majority of these journals are Open Access scholarly publications (no fee). There are currently over three-dozen journals published through the JPS at the University of Toronto.
Repositories
At the University of Toronto we have a growing number of Open Access repositories – metacollections, or “collections of collections” of open access and open educational resources. The repositories are often keyword searchable as well.
Books Online
More than 200,000 books have been digitized, from the University of Toronto Libraries. They are freely available online and out-of-copyright. The full text of these books can be searched, and they are also listed in our catalogue.
T-Space
T-Space is the University of Toronto’s Research Repository, and it showcases and preserves the scholarly work of U of T faculty. The vast majority of items in T-Space are Open for viewing, and many items are also licensed with an optional, legally binding, Canadian Creative Commons license to further define appropriate use.
Fulltext Digital Collections from UTL
These fulltext digital collections were developed here at the University of Toronto Libraries, in collaboration with university faculty and external partners. This work has often been made possible through the generous support of funding agencies.
Open Courses
Open Courses (often called OpenCourseWare, OCW) are free and open digital publications of high quality college and university-level educational materials. These materials are organized as courses, and often include course planning materials and evaluation tools as well as thematic content. Open Courses are free and openly licensed, accessible to anyone, anytime via the Internet. You may have also heard the term MOOC (massive, open, online courses) to describe this kind of content.
You can find open learning modules, funded by the Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development on our curriculum page.
U of T is partnering with Coursera and EdX to pilot new open web-based courses and create new opportunities for hands-on learning in the classroom:
For more information on strategy, activities and evaluation see Open Course Development.
The University of Toronto YouTube Channel features nearly 200 videos seen by more than half a million people so far: http://www.youtube.com/user/universitytoronto
Resources Outside of UofT
There are a growing number of international organizations dedicated to Open movements. Here is a list of the some of the major sites: