Excelsior University’s “Past Makes Perfect: A Mini Handbook for Student Historians”
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Past Makes Perfect: A Mini Handbook for Student Historians
Past Makes Perfect: A Mini Handbook for Student Historians is a textbook for history students that covers all of the tips and tricks historians use in easy bite sized formats. This textbook was created as part of the Open Education Network’s Ketida pilot program.
Describe the impact of your resource?
This open textbook is available through both the Pressbooks Directory and Excelsior’s institutional repository, SOAR (DSpace). As of December 2025, it has received over 1,500 views, with the highest engagement from readers in the United States, Canada, and Japan—demonstrating its growing international reach and impact.
Why library publishing?
Excelsior University’s publishing program, ExPress, is part of The Open Hub, the university’s one-stop shop for open education. ExPress works alongside SOAR (DSpace), Excelsior’s institutional repository. When a work is published in ExPress, it’s added to both the Pressbooks Directory and SOAR, with two versions deposited in SOAR: a static PDF and a link to the Pressbooks edition. The static version supports Excelsior’s course development schedule, while analytics from Pressbooks and DSpace help inform outreach efforts. Together, these platforms complement and advance the university’s open education goals.