e-books for FE: a digital library for FE

Extending learning spaces; responding to student expectations The project will provide 2990 e-book titles under unlimited concurrent access. Unlimited, simultaneous user access means that unlike the print world students do not have to wait for the hard copies to be returned by other students or borrow under short loan conditions. Access to a digital library 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The e-books are available under the terms of the JISC model licence e.g. Staff and students can incorporate parts in teaching learning materials whether electronic or paper. This includes course packs, presentations, VLEs, mobile devices, project work. The e-books for FE project aims to help colleges serve their diverse community of learners by providing them with a critical mass of relevant e-books.

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College has progressively been implementing e-books over the last 2-3 years. The college feels that these have added immensely to the flexibility of its course provision and delivery. Benefits: learners A range of resources to extend learning The flexibility to access resources anyplace, anytime and anywhere Enhanced analytical and research skills Overcoming the barriers of limited books More self-directive learning More in depth research integrated into assignments Enhanced achievement Image provided by JISCinfonet http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College Benefits to teachers: Ability to utilise the resources to further learning and personal development at their own pace Ability to encourage more self-directive learning Assignments easier to mark due to more credible and valid sources e-books can be easily integrated into the VLE To the college: Increased attainment, use of ICT Effective enrolment and promotional tool Efficiency gains, e.g. cost savings, space. Procurement decisions and IT resourcing is informed by usage statistics. Helps promote the library and the VLE to staff and students Increased capacity to support distance and disabled learners n.b.The ebrary platform automatically copies citation information when text is copied from an e-book.

The Titles The Core Collection contains e-books from a variety of publishers, including Heinemann, Hodder & Stoughton, Blackwell, A & C Black, Springer. The e-books available cover subjects as diverse as Software Design, Heath and Social Care, Automobile Electronics, Beauty Therapy through to Practical Lambing. The e-books in the Core Collection support taught course students in a broad range of subject areas: Arts and Humanities, Business Management and General, Education & Childcare, Health & Life Sciences, ICT, Literature & Literary Studies, Travel & Tourism, Key Skills inc Maths, Science & Engineering, Social Sciences and Vocational. A full list of titles can now be found on the JISC Collections website. ARGUMENT #3, A Doric Column created by the artist Tom Bendtsen made from 3000 books.

How were the titles chosen? Initial dialogue with FE Colleges in May 2008, to establish demand, levels of current take up and priorities for titles. Briefing meeting with publishers and suppliers to tell them your needs Invitation to Tender, with strict technical and licensing requirements and emphasis on relevance to FE courses. Community Consultation 3 week consultation, promoted through the RSC’S and via the e-books for FE, COfHE and JISC mailing lists.135 FE colleges participated and cast around 80,000 votes. Significantly more interest in the vocational category. Clear demand for vocational titles High cost titles e.g. Electrical Installations Calculations: Volume 1 7e, The Building Regulations, BTEC National Beauty Therapy. If the titles were not ranked then they are not included so the community o that What you asked for! Catered for smaller and specialist colleges

Equity of access: Extending access to your library e-books can have disproportionate benefits for learners with disabilities and students working from home Why are e-books important for inclusion? People with a range of access needs find traditional text books difficult. Literacy issues might affect learners with low reading ages, working in a second language or learners with specific learning difficulties. Traditional books may be physically difficult to manipulate for some users and for others the text size and contrast will present barriers. Books in electronic format may allow users to: personalise and adapt the text size and colour have the text read aloud by synthetic speech have instant access to referencing tools such as dictionaries copy/paste text into notes, reducing the physical demand of typing. More information and guidance on extending access to your learners can be found via the JISC TechDIS site. Short video clip on e-books/inclusion can be seen here

Making the most of your digital library Thanks to funding from the Learning Skills Council and the JISC the project will make previously unaffordable and unavailable e-textbooks available to every FE college in the UK. The challenge for colleges and JISC Collections is to get the e-books used to their full potential throughout the sector, not just a small group of enthusiasts. e-books should be treated as a raw material to be exploited alongside a variety of other resources- however and wherever learners want to learn. Opportunity for the FE sector to shape the provision of e-resources and to go beyond providing print unmanipulable handouts to creating a dynamic environment where students and teachers can personalise, annotate and incorporate quality assured content into their learning spaces.

The future You can download and view the usage statistics for your college From May JISC Collections will monitor the usage of the e-books, looking at trends across colleges, discipline areas, and e-book titles. e-select framework agreement In addition to the centrally purchased collections, colleges will be able to locally purchase additional e-book titles through the e-select framework agreement. Assessors from FE colleges will evaluate and rank the e-books submitted for inclusion on the following criteria: Relevance to qualifications taken in FE Demonstrable discounts for FE colleges JISC Collections will continue to work with colleges and everyone in the e-books supply chain to look at how we can sustain the adoption of e-books in FE into the future and provide FE colleges with the e-book titles they need http://www.flickr.com/photos/jnxyz/ Chris Howard