Rate My Professor Matt Ruen

Matt Ruen serves as Head of Collections and Digital Scholarship in the University Libraries at Grand Valley State University. He chairs the University Libraries Faculty Assembly for the 2023-2026 term and the Faculty Research and Development Committee. Previously, as Scholarly Communications Outreach Coordinator, Ruen played a key role in launching and developing GVSU's Open Educational Resources (OER) initiative in 2015. He collaborates with the Center for Scholarly and Creative Excellence, Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, eLearning and Emerging Technologies, and GVSU Laker Store to promote free, openly licensed educational materials including activities, readings, videos, and textbooks that faculty can adapt. This work aims to lower student textbook costs—averaging around $600 annually in earlier years—enhance accessibility, and expand options for teaching and learning. Ruen's efforts support ScholarWorks@GVSU, the institutional repository hosting over 10,500 publications with millions of global downloads, facilitating knowledge dissemination.

Ruen's academic interests include scholarly communications, open access, copyright, fair use, and information literacy. Key publications comprise 'Exploring the Landscape of OER and Textbook Affordability Programs' (2019, with Jacklyn A. Rander and Janelle Yahne), 'The Case for OER as the Advancement of Knowledge/Creative Expression' (2022, with Amber Dierking), 'We're all in this together: Mentoring in Academic Libraries' (2015 poster, with Cara Cadena and Betsy Hung), and 'BUS 201: Legal Environment for Business OER Curation' (with Erica L. Schiller). He also contributed to 'Re-think It Conference Proceedings' and various library reports. In 2018, Ruen received the first annual Library Publishing Coalition Award for Exemplary Service, recognizing his leadership as Program Committee Chair and instruction in library publishing workshops at the Digital Library Federation Forum. He has presented at the Library Publishing Forum, Open Education conferences, and panels on OER production and predatory publishing, influencing practices in academic libraries.