e-books for FE May newsletter

Welcome to the May issue of our e-books for FE newsletter. We’re sure you are now settled into the rhythms of working from home and supporting your learners from a distance. Over the last few weeks, since schools and colleges have been closed, everyone has been relying on their VLEs to ensure students are getting the best access to education and resources they can.

It is likely that the changes we’ve all been making during this time will have a lasting impact on education and may well shape the future of how education resources are accessed and used. One of the things that has been extremely important is collaboration; between colleagues within institutions, between colleges and schools, and between the education sector and service providers, like us here at Jisc. It’s been incredible to see how everyone has worked together to pool knowledge and resources during the pandemic, and this could herald a future for education that involves faster knowledge and information exchange.

Virtual Library

Over the past year, Jisc has been working on the Virtual Library. Virtual Library is a new service that allows you to find all of Jisc’s resources for FE and can be integrated with your college’s existing Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as a Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) tool. If you aren’t sure if your VLE can use LTI tools, check with your institution IT support team and they’ll be able to tell you. Virtual Library is available for free to our members. Subscribe to this free service through Jisc’s Licence subscriptions manager (LSM) today.

Webinar clinics

Thank you to everyone who attended our April e-books for FE clinic. If you missed the session, you can catch up on the recording and access all session materials here.

ProQuest LibCentral training for Jisc FE colleges

Instead of our usual e-books for FE clinic at the end of the month, this month we are working with our colleagues at ProQuest to bring you four training sessions on LibCentral throughout May. The sessions will cover all of the administrative functions that librarians need to know to make the most of LibCentral, including running usage reports and downloading MARC records.

Each session will run for 45 minutes and will allow time for Q&A. Each session will cover the same content, so you will only need to register for one session.  To register, select the session that is most convenient and register below.

Wednesday, 13 May 2020 10:00

Thursday, 14 May 2020 15:30

Tuesday, 19 May 2020 14:00

Thursday, 21 May 2020 10:00

Top 20 users

Well done to all organisations who reached a spot in the top 20. If you have tips to share on how you promote e-books for FE to teaching practitioners and learners, we would love to feature you and showcase your work. Get in touch if you would like to be featured at  content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk

Rank Title User sessions
1 South Eastern Regional College 1614
2 Uxbridge College 1158
3 York College 1060
4 Middlesbrough College 1051
5 Nottingham College 953
6 Ashton-under-Lyne Sixth Form College 936
7 Varndean College 919
8 DN Colleges Group 914
9 The Cheadle and Marple College Network 913
10 Walsall College 841
11 Stockton Riverside College 832
12 South Thames College 820
13 The Trafford College Group 750
14 North West Regional College 739
15 New City College London 685
16 Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College 667
17 Southern Regional College 642
18 The Manchester College 630
19 Farnborough Sixth Form College 615
20 Halesowen College 588

Mergers: If your organisation has recently merged with another, ProQuest may not have the most current merger information and your merger may not be reflected in the usage data. Please check with ProQuest and request that they update your account to reflect the merger. Their e-book support contact address is: ebooksupport@proquest.com

Top 20 titles

Rank Title User sessions
1 Cache Level 3 Child Care and Education : Early Years Educator 5643
2 CACHE Level 3 Technical Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care EBook 4277
3 BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 1 3277
4 BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 2 2420
5 CACHE Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner 2342
6 BTEC Level 3 National Business, Book 1 1032
7 BTEC Level 3 National Business Student Book 1 948
8 BTEC Level 3 National Applied Science Student Book 871
9 AQA A-level Psychology Book 1 : For A-level Year 1 and AS 780
10 CACHE, Level 3 – Diploma in Supporting Teaching and Learning 776
11 CACHE Level 3 Early Years Educator : for the Work-Based Learner 704
12 Law 656
13 BTEC Level 3 National Construction and the Built Environment Student Book 630
14 AQA A-level Biology 1 : For A-level Year 1 and AS 595
15 Ocr Psychology for a Level Book 1 573
16 Psychology : The Science of Mind and Behaviour 569
17 BTEC Level 3 Business Book 2 537
18 Anatomy and Physiology 507
19 BTEC Level 3 Nationals 2016 Applied Science Student Book 2 483
20 AQA A-level Business for A-level 1 and AS : Fifth Edition 443

COVID-19 support

All of us here at Jisc hope that you are keeping safe and well, and we are looking forward to continuing to support you for however long the COVID-19 crisis lasts. Just to remind you, you can read about what Jisc is doing for members during the crisis here. For FE in specific, all of our VLRs are currently free to members for the duration of this academic year (up to 31/7/2020), and many of you attended our COVID-19 support webinar, details of and information from which are still available to view online.Some of our expired titles have been added back temporarily to our e-books for FE catalogue, and If you would like to sign up to Virtual Library, you can do so for free through Jisc’s Licence subscriptions manager (LSM)

The last word

Libraries see increase in e-book borrowing during lockdown

Last month the BBC reported that libraries across England have reported a surge in users borrowing e-books and e-resources online during the pandemic. In in the first month of lockdown in March this year, loans of online e-books, audiobooks and e-magazines were up by an average of 63% compared with March 2019.

Do you think this trend will continue after lockdown? We know many librarians are already questioning the hygiene of print books in anticipation of libraries re-opening. Perhaps this pandemic has brought to light an overlooked benefit of e-books – they are certainly more hygienic than their print counterparts, and perhaps this will translate into increased usage in libraries over the coming months.

Support queries

Email: content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
Website: https://support.ebooksforfe.jisc.ac.uk/

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We would love to hear your feedback on this month’s newsletter. Leave us a comment below.

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By Helen Foster

Open access support coordinator

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