Opportunities for academic libraries to enrich their products and services through facilitating open education (OE) in higher education are presented in an overview of good practices. A case study of open textbook publishing was performed at TU Delft to study how these products and services could stimulate educators to adopt OE. A simplified user acceptance model of innovation was developed and applied to the case study, to study the educator’s mind-set before and after they published an open textbook with the support of the TU Delft Library. Using the insights that were gained from the case study and from good practices of other university libraries, recommendations are presented for professionalizing products and services by academic libraries to facilitate the adoption of OE into educational practice and to develop institutional policies and regulations that support educators with these practices. ... Read more

Luminescent thin films were fabricated on silicon wafers using reactive magnetron sputtering of Ca, Si and Eu in Ar/N₂ atmosphere. In order to activate the luminescence, the as-deposited nitride films were heated to 1100 °C by a rapid thermal processing treatment. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal the crystal phases that form during thermal treatment. By recording scanning electron microscopy images of the surface and the cross-section of the film at different radial locations, the formation of different layers with a thickness depending on the radial position is revealed. Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy analysis of these cross-sections reveals the formation of an oxide top layer and a nitride bottom layer. The thickness of the top layer increases as a function of radial position on the substrate and the thickness of the bottom layer decreases accordingly. The observation of different 4f ⁶5d¹ → 4f ⁷ Eu^{2 +} luminescence emission bands at different radial positions correspond to divalent Eu doped Ca₃Si₂O₄N₂, Ca₂SiO₄ and CaSiO₃, which is in agreement with the phases identified by X-ray diffraction analysis. A mechanism for the observed oxidation process of the nitride films is proposed that consists of a stepwise oxidation from the as-deposited amorphous nitride state to crystalline Ca₃Si₂O₄N₂, to Ca₂SiO₄ and finally CaSiO₃. The oxidation rate and final state of oxidation show a strong temperature-time dependency during anneal treatment. ... Read more