A digital library does not need a large acquisitions budget to exist. Thousands of books, textbooks and videos are published under open licences that your school can use legally and free of charge. The challenge is knowing how to recognise them, choose them and make them readable on your students’ phones.
Open educational resources: what are we talking about?
On 25 November 2019, UNESCO adopted its Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER). It defines them as learning, teaching or research materials, in any format, that are in the public domain or released under an open licence. In practice, an OER can be accessed at no cost, and also reused, adapted and redistributed by others.
The text sets out five areas of action: building stakeholders’ capacity, adopting supportive policies, ensuring inclusive access (including in multiple languages), developing sustainable models and fostering international cooperation. The topic is still current: the 3rd UNESCO World OER Congress, held in Dubai on 19 and 20 November 2024, reviewed progress on the Recommendation and adopted a declaration linking OER to digital public goods and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.
For a school or university, the takeaway is simple: part of your collection can be built without buying anything, as long as you respect the rules of each licence.
Free is not the same as open: read the licence
A PDF found online is not necessarily reusable. What matters is the licence. The most common are Creative Commons licences, all of which require crediting the author:
- CC BY: sharing, adaptation and even commercial use allowed, with attribution.
- CC BY-SA: the same rights, but any adaptation must be shared under the same (or a compatible) licence.
- CC BY-NC and CC BY-NC-SA: adaptation allowed, but for non-commercial purposes only.
- CC BY-ND and CC BY-NC-ND: sharing allowed, but no modification.
- CC0: the author waives their rights and the work can be used without conditions.
According to Creative Commons, only CC BY and CC BY-SA allow both adaptation and commercial use. For a school library, “NC” terms are usually not a problem; however, if you plan to translate a book into a local language, avoid “ND” licences. In every case, record each resource’s title, author, source and licence.
Where to find reliable resources
Books for young readers
When we checked in October 2026, the African Storybook platform listed 5,479 illustrated storybooks in 261 languages, with more than 9,000 translations, all under a CC BY 4.0 licence. Stories can be downloaded to read offline or to print, and reading and authoring apps are available on Android and iOS. It is a valuable way to offer texts in African languages, as well as French and English, alongside textbooks.
Encyclopaedias and classics without a connection
Kiwix, free and open-source software, lets you read Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg books and other reference content offline, including on a phone. The organisation states that it shows no advertising and collects no personal data.
Your own teachers’ resources
Lesson sheets, worked exercises, lab videos: your teachers already create resources. Publishing them under an open licence, with their authors’ consent, enriches the collection and recognises their work.
Think mobile and low bandwidth
In many schools, the phone is the only screen available. Yet the GSMA’s 2025 report on mobile connectivity notes that 3.1 billion people, or 38% of the world’s population, live within reach of mobile internet but do not use it. Device cost is a major barrier: an entry-level phone costs 16% of average monthly income in low- and middle-income countries, and 48% for the poorest 20%. Sub-Saharan Africa nevertheless accounted for 75% of the 40 million people newly covered in 2024.
For your digital library, this means concrete choices: favour lightweight files, offer downloadable versions, avoid heavy videos when a document will do, and organise resources by class so every student quickly finds what is relevant to them.
Building your open collection in six steps
- Start from the curriculum: list, by level, the needs that available textbooks do not cover.
- Search recognised sources: OER platforms, resources published by education ministries, content produced by your own school.
- Check the licence of every resource and record it along with the author and source.
- Review quality: a subject teacher validates accuracy and suitability for the level.
- Lighten formats for comfortable reading on a phone.
- Organise and promote: sort by level and subject, then introduce the collection to teachers and students.
How SciAut Biblio helps
SciAut Biblio, the digital library of the SciAut Suite, brings printed books and digital resources together in one place:
- Digital resources: PDFs, videos and links (for example to open-licensed books) available online, according to each student’s class.
- Search: by title, author, subject or level, with filters, to find a resource in seconds.
- Catalogue: records, covers, call numbers and copies, with ISBN import for the printed collection.
- Library cards: linked to the students and staff already registered in SciAut Educ, so everyone reaches the resources for their class.
- Loans and returns plus automatic reminders for physical books.
Want to start by automating your printed collection? Our guide to automating your school library walks you through it step by step.
Conclusion
Open educational resources give schools a legal, low-cost way to expand their collections, provided they check licences and design for the phone first. Well organised and accessible by class, they become a real library rather than a pile of files. Discover SciAut Biblio and request a demo.
Sources
- Recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER) — UNESCO, 2019
- The 3rd UNESCO OER World Congress — Open Education Global, 2024
- About CC Licenses — Creative Commons, accessed 2026
- African Storybook — African Storybook Initiative (Saide), accessed October 2026
- About Kiwix — Kiwix, accessed 2026
- The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 (press release) — GSMA, 2025
