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.

Searching Effectively

Image Credit: HackCollege.

In my library orientations, I set aside a section on how to search databases (and the internet, as well as Google) effectively.

The major points include narrowing down your question to key terms and similar tips. This wonderful article at Mashable brings some material from HackCollege to incorporate this and many other tips for students.

Check it out!

State of the Library: September

What of October, that ambiguous month, the month of tension, the unendurable month? - Doris Lessing

Hello all and welcome to the first "State of the Library" for the year. This is a monthly update of library activities and performance. I also try to give a few tools or insights of available resources that might help in your classrooms.

Electronic Resource Circulation

Usage
Physical resources (books, cds, videos, magazines) had a modest beginning this year with 123 checkouts, and as you can see from a comparison against previous years, that's a little below the median, higher than two years ago but lower than last year.

Physical Resource Circulation

Electronic resources took a jump from last year to 420 articles accessed (from last year's 253), continuing a trend in which electronic use exceeds physical. Still, last month's statistics would assign a checkout to over a quarter of our student population.

You can see other charts that isolate data from year-to-year or by database at the Library Wiki site.

Last month 8 classes received library training in classrooms and in the library, including Mr. Rice's psychology classes, Mr. Izurieta's advanced Spanish class, and Science Inquiry classes from Mr. Lee and Mr. Zarubin. Mr. Rice's psychology classes also set up blogs for research documentation.

Resources

San Jose, 1906

Primary Sources with Calisphere
The University of California's themed collections of primary sources chronicling the history of California. You'll find letters of environmental activist and scientist John Muir, historical maps of disasters, and collections representing California's diverse culture.

And with ARTstor:
Use these wonderful subject guides or follow the ARTstor blog to find collections of images for uses in history, languages, literature, theater, dance and more. ARTstor has recently come to agreements with the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (RMN), which will add 12,000 works from the national and regional museums of France, and the World Monuments Fund, which has added over 1,000 images of architecture and cultural heritage sites.

Don't forget to check out the fascinating work done by Mr. Zarubin and Dr. Haney with their students on gene mapping: link one, link two, and link three.

New Additions
We have many new additions to the library collection. We are in the process of replacing lost books as well as acquiring other works in fiction and non-fiction (as recommended by YALSA). We have also updated some study guides and college counseling guides after our summer weeding. I already have requests from the history, science and art departments for our next order!

October in history from Oxford Reference
• October 11, 1984: Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan became the first woman to perform a spacewalk.

• October 14, 1066: English king Harold II was killed at the Battle of Hastings, an event captured in the Bayeux Tapestry.

• October 22, 1879: Thomas Edison invented electric lighting, demonstrating 30 incandescent electric lamps connected in parallel with separate switches.

• October 24 and 29, 1929: The New York stock market crashed on 'Black Thursday' and 'Black Tuesday', wiping billions of dollars off the value of stocks.

• October 30, 1938: Panic spread when radio listeners confused Orson Welles' performance of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds with a factual report of an invasion from Mars.

Online Tools

Click "continue reading" for some great examples of free online education and collaboration tools.


Student Collaboration

VoiceThread.com - Multimedia collaboration space. Have people comment verbally or in writing on documents, images, video, etc. Can be open to anyone or only to a specific group.

WikiSpaces.com - A place to host portfolios of student work that can be seen and commented on by others in the class or grade.

PBWorks.com - Anther place to give students a place to post their work, as well as collaborate on projects. Could be used for teachers to collaborate, as well. Similar to Google Sites. Click here for more instructions, examples, and how-to videos on PBWorks.

http://www.piazza.com/? - Collaborative Q&A design interface where students can collaborate on answers and see which ones the instructor approves.

Presentation Tools

Prezzi.com - Powerpoint on steroids; take a look at the video below!



http://www.gliffy.com/ - make diagrams and flowcharts online really easily

http://animoto.com/ For putting photos into a dynamic slideshow

MyBrainShark.com - Add audio to slides, documents, or video, posting; tracking who views.

For Audio Accompaniment in or out of class:

http://www.poducateme.com/ Learn all about making podcasts for education

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Audacity is a free program for recording

http://ccmixter.org/ for Creative Commons (legal) music to accompany projects and videos

Study Tools

StudyStack.com - Make your own or use their flashcards for many subjects. Other study games too.

Tips: Switching to Mac

For those of you exploring your Mac with enthusiasm, you can check out the following list of free mac programs that do various handy things: http://lifehacker.com/5826449/lifehacker-pack-for-mac-our-list-of-the-best-free-mac-downloads (I highly recommend VLC (plays a lot of different video files) and Unarchiver (opens compressed files, like .rar; Mac is already equipped to zip and unzip for you, just right click and hit 'compress').