That's my content. That's my creativity. That's my curriculum! Do you want copyright and cataloguing with that?

What are libraries doing about collecting and managing user-generated content? In an era of globalisation we increasingly value the unique and the locally grown over the mass-produced, high food miles equivalent. At the growers' market we carefully select ingredients despite the odd shapes, unpredictable quantities and without accompanying metadata about ingredients, nutritional value and use-by dates. However, it seems that teacher librarians are slow to apply the same philosophy when they select resources for their libraries. Instead of relishing the variety, freshness and freedom of open, user-generated content, they are restricting library users to a diet of commercial content and subscription services. Is this perhaps because it's safer and easier to use content that comes in neat packages with strict instructions on how to use it? Libraries are no strangers to the ideals of sharing and collaboration, so perhaps it is 20th century copyright and cataloguing practices that stop teacher librarians embracing the full range of learning resources available in the 21st century? This paper considers the benefits and challenges of user-generated content, and the philosophical shift of 'mass innovation not mass production'. Using examples such as open access, creative commons, and wikis the paper looks at what education can learn from projects that support collaboration, personalisation and creativity in learning. At a practical level, the author looks at tools that libraries can use to help their school communities to identify open education resources, collaboratively tag resources to match curriculum goals and create and share new open education resources. By constantly asking 'is there an open way of accessing and organising this content?' library staff can reduce duplication of effort and 'content miles' - even in an era of national curriculum. [Author abstract]