Welcome to the January 2021 issue of our e-books for FE newsletter. The closure of schools and colleges due to the latest Covid lockdown will make this another very difficult month for staff and services, and students have already suffered due to the confusion surrounding the sitting of the BTEC exams. We hope the new LRC Community of Practice (details below) will provide support to library staff in the coming months.
Usage of our e-books remained relatively high in December, despite the usual seasonal dip, with an increase of 68% over December 2019.
We welcome some new subscribers who joined us in November and December 2020: The Brooke House 6th Form College, St Charles Catholic 6th Form College, Kingston Maurward College, Highbury College, Ada National College for Digital Skills, and St Dominic’s 6th Form College. Almost 96% of Jisc’s FE & Skills member colleges are now subscribing to e-books for FE.
FE Learning Resources & Library Services Community of Practice
Jisc is facilitating the creation of an FE Learning Resources & Library Services Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP is aimed primarily at library and learning resources staff, but we recognise that structures have changed and that there are an increasing number of roles that are relevant to the conversation; for example, student experience and student services.
The purpose and aims of the community are as follows:
- Open sharing related to provision of learning resources and library services, including – but not restricted to – digital resources and digital practice.
- A forum to help members improve services, develop their practice, adapt to change, and find solutions to common problems.
- Considering where technology solutions might alleviate concerns and support objectives, and the culture, skills and processes needed for effective implementation of those solutions.
- Encouraging collaboration and seeking common approaches that support members to improve learner experiences.
We are currently looking for expressions of interest from library staff who would be interested in being a member of the Community Leadership Team: please contact andrew.jackson@jisc.ac.uk for further information if you would like to be involved at this level.
VLR demo webinars for Teaching Practitioners
Later this month, we will be running some introductory webinars on our Vocational Learning Resources, specifically for teaching staff. This is to offer teaching practitioners a demonstration of our resources, what they cover, how they can be used and what teaching practitioner support is available.
The webinar will be repeated each day over the course of a week at different times so staff can select a date and time that suits them. The webinar will be around 30 minutes in total with an optional Q&A section at the end.
These webinars will be a great opportunity for staff to get an overview of what’s on offer and ask the team any questions they might have.
We are still in the process of finalising the arrangements but we will be sending updates on this via JiscMail, the VLR newsletter and our Twitter accounts so please do let teaching practitioners know about this opportunity.
Top 20 users in December 2020
Well done to all organisations who reached a spot in the top 20.
| Rank | Organisation | User sessions |
| 1 | The Manchester College | 2430 |
| 2 | Varndean College | 2075 |
| 3 | New City College | 2049 |
| 4 | West Nottinghamshire College | 1890 |
| 5 | Middlesbrough College | 1740 |
| 6 | Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College | 1667 |
| 7 | The WKCIC Group | 1532 |
| 8 | HCUC – Harrow College & Uxbridge College | 1487 |
| 9 | York College | 1471 |
| 10 | West College Scotland | 1438 |
| 12 | Newham Sixth Form College | 1335 |
| 12 | Grŵp Llandrillo Menai | 1286 |
| 13 | Godalming College | 1268 |
| 14 | South Thames College | 1268 |
| 15 | Coleg Cambria | 1260 |
| 16 | South & City College Birmingham | 1243 |
| 17 | Milton Keynes College | 1197 |
| 18 | Farnborough Sixth Form College | 1174 |
| 19 | The Trafford College Group | 1117 |
| 20 | Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group | 1095 |
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 in December 2020
| Rank | Title | User sessions |
| 1 | CACHE Level 3 Technical Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care | 7352 |
| 2 | CACHE Level 3 Child Care and Education : Early Years Educator | 4910 |
| 3 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 1 | 3997 |
| 4 | BTEC Nationals Applied Science Student Book 1 | 3197 |
| 5 | CACHE Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner | 2534 |
| 6 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 1 : For the 2016 specifications | 2424 |
| 7 | BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 1 | 2356 |
| 8 | AQA A Level Biology (Year 1 and Year 2) | 1762 |
| 9 | BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 2 | 1577 |
| 10 | Psychology: the Science of Mind and Behaviour (8th edition) | 1549 |
| 12 | AQA A-level Psychology Book 1 : For A-level Year 1 and AS | 1474 |
| 12 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 2 : For the 2016 specifications | 1426 |
| 13 | Anatomy and Physiology (5th edition) | 1321 |
| 14 | OCR Sociology for A Level | 1299 |
| 15 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 2 : For the 2016 specifications | 1282 |
| 16 | CACHE Level 2 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care | 1254 |
| 17 | OCR AS/A Level Law Book 1 | 1195 |
| 18 | BTEC Level 3 Nationals Applied Science Student Book 2 | 1102 |
| 19 | AQA A-level Sociology for A-level Year 1 and AS : Book 1 | 1064 |
| 20 | AQA A-level Business | 1019 |
Support queries
Email: content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
Website: https://support.ebooksforfe.jisc.ac.uk/
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