State of the Library: October/November

Space Update

                We saw a big return in our summer investment in the library space. Acoustics are a hundred times better, best demonstrated during the administration of extended-time PSAT tests in the upper library October 17^th. The lower library was very busy after all the regular-time PSAT students were released, but our extended-time students enjoyed a much quieter environment than we have been able to offer before. The furniture in the lower library is also being well-used and well-loved, particularly the couches, newly-upholstered chairs, and the low table with chess and checkers games available. (Chess Club has been revived as a student activity, and so far it has fostered good-natured sportsmanship across grade lines and social circles amongst our students.)

eBook Update

                The library has enlisted the largest eBook service in schools to provide Sage Hill with an eLibrary. OverDrive is used in the entire Orange County Public Library system as well as in our own Newport Beach Public Library, and it allows community members to check out eBooks the library purchases on popular consumer devices such as iPads, Nooks, Kindles, Macs and PCs.

The eCollection is very young and small, but we hope to continue investing in it as we do the physical collection, which will probably hit a “ceiling” of around 20,000 to 25,000 books in the next ten years judging from growth and physical space limits. We currently have a collection of around 16,000 that is still in robust use.

iPads in the Library

                Two iPads have been purchased for in-library use and were briefly on loan to the Admission Department for Open House. We’re currently calibrating the iPads, purchasing protective covers, and working out ways to keep them available within the library space, perhaps with a tether or a sign-out process. They should become available by the end of the month or the beginning of November.

State of the Library: May

eBooks

 Congratulations to our drawing winner, Mr. Nguyen! J

The recent survey distributed to the community brought back very interesting results. 157 students, teachers, and staff members responded. The majority of respondents (70%) read ebooks, but about a third of those preferred print. For reading devices, iPad was the big favorite followed by Kindle and Mac computers. Only 42 respondents checked out resources for personal interest this year (as opposed to checking out for school use).  A surprising number expressed interest in audiobooks (37%) and 26% already listen to them. Again, iPads and iPods were the device favorites for audiobooks. The majority of respondents didn’t think Sage Hill was quite ready for ebooks in the classroom by a narrow margin, but on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being “I think we’re ready for them now” just over half chose a 4 or a 5.

With so very few of our patrons utilizing the library for personal use, it’s unlikely the library will pursue a personal reading ebook collection in the next year unless the classroom environment fully embraces them as well. At present the price is too high to justify catering to such a small number of users (personal interest patrons who read exclusively in e-form). However, the library will definitely investigate audiobook options and, perhaps, cheaper ebook services.

The library hosted the spring meeting of the Independent School Library Exchange (ISLE), a group of independent school librarians facing the same dilemmas with e-books. To that end the meeting hosted ten e-book vendors to provide more perspective and hopes for a better cost-to-value ratio. The little mini-conference was very successful and offered more options and opportunities to follow the progress of the educational ebook market.

If you’re interested in this topic, I would be happy to discuss it with you and obtain even more input.

More Handy Stuff From Your Library

I recently added several hundred ebook titles to the library collection (http://library.sagehillschool.org) thanks to Project Gutenberg. These titles are out of copyright, and there are links from our library site to theirs, which offers free ebooks in many formats. Click “Catalog” and enter “Gutenberg” as a keyword to see a listing of these titles, which includes many classics.

For more free ebooks, you can check out Amazon’s Free Library for your kindle or kindle reader on iPad here: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=2245146011 and visit http://archive.org/details/texts for even more obscure out-of-print collections. (Check out, in particular, the facsimile of the original author-illustrated, hand-written edition of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll: http://ia700305.us.archive.org/7/items/alicesadventures19002gut/19002-h/alice_1.htm.)

Library Use

Historically library circulation declines in the last two months of the school year, as other programs, including arts and service learning, put on final shows, performances, and visits.  Circulation is at its lowest during testing times (December and May), when no new material is introduced, which is as it should be. There were still 238 physical resources that left the library in the month of March, and electronic resources nearly met February with 1268 articles accessed. Visit www.sagehillschool.org/library to see more of this year’s statistics, both physical and electronic, as they become available. We’ve also added many new titles, including local flora and fauna guides suggested by the science department, to our collection.

End of Year

              

 Please encourage your students to return their books to the library by May 21. We are starting inventory soon and we want as many of our resources as possible to be available for next year’s students. I’m also taking volunteers the next few weeks if you find the idea of scanning every book in our collection irresistible.

The Problem with eBooks

Image: Engadget

We're not the only ones trying to figure this out. Libraries and schools are trying to work within a system that is geared toward an individual consumer (you own your e-reader device, you own the license to a book/program/game). Publishers are actively limiting availability in school, public and library environments--limiting electronic "checkouts" to make an ebook's "shelf-life" finite. I've been discussing this actively with other Independent School Librarians, and even neighboring public ones at NBPL. For the full story of this problem, this is a great article:

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/09/school-libraries-struggle-with-e-book-loans/

 Feedback from teachers on how students are learning (or not learning) electronically would be beneficial to all of us. Currently, the library offers many ebooks, but they're all browser navigable reference books, and all of them searchable. We use Gale and Salem Press as providers for these books.

Here is a summary of the ways eTextbooks (not just books) are available right now:

Amazon/Kindle. Few to none of our textbooks available due to Publisher blocks. Exceptions being common English novels, classics, and recent non-fiction. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000702481.

iPad offers reading for other book providers, one of the few, but students would need to buy/acquire any tools from the iTunes store.

Other physical eReaders, e.g. Nook. These devices are associated with their individual stores, Barnes and Noble, etc. Few textbooks available. None of the big guns. Nooks are popular with librarians because they're cheaper than the other options.

Important Note: There are copyright issues with using Kindles (and iPads) to check out to students. Further reading: http://www.libraryjournal.com/slj/home/891470-312/amazon_alters_rules_for_kindles.html.csp

CourseSmart. An eReader program for Android, iPad. For offline, you must "checkout" certain sections, not whole thing. Otherwise, must be online to work.

Publishers: Brooks Cole (Math). Some from Worth Publishers ( Econ). Some from Prentice Hall (English, History). Not all.

Some examples from CourseSmart:

1. European History textbook. 
• 180 Days Rental (6 months), e.g. September - February. 
• ~$60, savings of ~%50. Unless they need it March-July, then no savings. 
• http://www.coursesmart.com/the-west-in-the-world-renaissance-to-present/sherman-dennis-salisbury-joyce/dp/0077252713
2. AP US History textbook. 
• 180 days Rental (6 months), e.g. September - February. 
• ~$100. Savings of ~$90... unless they need it March-July, then no savings. 
• http://www.coursesmart.com/a-people-and-a-nation-a-history-of-the-united/norton-sheriff-blight-chudacoff-logevall/dp/9780495915256
3. Calculus textbook.
•  180 Days Rental (6 months).
•  ~$115. Savings of ~$100. ... unless they need it March-July, then no savings. 
• http://www.coursesmart.com/calculus-9th-edition/larson-edwards/dp/70000lti00728

CengageBrain.com. Publisher: Gale. Works with above CourseSmart apps.
http://www.cengagebrain.com/shop/en/US/storefront/US?cmd=CLHeaderSearch&fieldValue=9781413033083

eCampus.com. Publisher: Varied. Offers rented textbooks as well as used. Some eBooks available that link back to CourseSmart (above).

Some examples from eCampus:

1. Economics textbook. 360 days rental. ~$30. ~$20 savings from new. http://www.ecampus.com/economics-example-1st-anderson/bk/9780716769347
2. Art History Book. 360 Day Subscription (12 months). ~$115. Savings of ~$75. http://www.ecampus.com/gardners-art-through-ages-global-history/bk/9780495093077
3. Many not available in ebook form, e.g. Geometry Textbook. http://www.ecampus.com/geometry-grades-911-mcdougal-littell/bk/9780395977279

Postscript: Overdrive
For non-textbook eBooks (fiction and non-fiction, primarily), the big provider is Overdrive, but they require a $4000 set-up subscription ($2000 for a custom site and $2,000 for books, no word on the cost for subsequent years) and we have to purchase any ebooks we want to make available through that system. Books vary, most around $20 range, audio can be as much as $100. If we stop subscribing, we lose all the ebooks we "bought." Further reading: http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/890089-264/kansas_state_librarian_goes_eyeball.html.csp

There are alternatives for Overdrive based in Follett and Macklin, but their breadth of availability doesn't yet compare. These are relatively new and are building available collections, mostly by fighting tooth and nail with publishers.