Welcome to the April issue of our e-books for FE newsletter. Usage of e-books continues to rise, with a 7% increase in March 2022 compared to March 2021: an all-time high for March usage since Jisc e-books have been available.
e-book procurement 2022
The procurement Focus Group, comprising 15 members of FE library staff from across the UK, will be convening on Thursday 7 April to discuss the results of their voting on the new titles offered by ProQuest (who broker a range of publishers) and Pearson (who submit separately). A total of 1,288 new titles have been offered, breaking down into three lots as follows:
- Lot 1 – AS/A Level = 479
- Lot 2 – Vocational = 683
- Lot 3 – GCSE/Nationals = 126
There are also 155 titles due to expire on 31 August this year, so we will be considering renewals of those with high usage and continuing relevance, either for a single year or for a further three years.
Publishers did respond to our request for titles in three particular areas, following feedback in January from the FE library community, i.e. ESOL, T Levels, and land-based subjects.
After the 7 April discussion, Pete Collins and Andrew Jackson will review the longlist and begin the process of aligning the priority choices with the available budget, which is the same as last year.
Top 20 users in March 2022
Well done to all organisations who reached a spot in the top 20.
| Rank | Organisation | User sessions |
| 1 | New City College London | 7228 |
| 2 | Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College | 3880 |
| 3 | South Thames College | 3863 |
| 4 | The Sixth Form College Farnborough | 3212 |
| 5 | Varndean College | 2787 |
| 6 | The Trafford College Group | 2466 |
| 7 | Hereford Sixth Form | 2092 |
| 8 | East Kent College Group | 2055 |
| 9 | Newcastle and Staffordshire College Group | 2054 |
| 10 | West Herts College | 2053 |
| 11 | Truro and Penwith College | 2012 |
| 12 | West Nottinghamshire College | 1998 |
| 13 | Bedford College | 1924 |
| 14 | LTE Group | 1872 |
| 15 | Richard Huish College | 1678 |
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 March 2022
| Rank | Title | User sessions |
| 1 | CACHE Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care | 13877 |
| 2 | CACHE Level 3 Child Care and Education: Early Years Educator | 8736 |
| 3 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 1 | 7018 |
| 4 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 1: For the 2016 Specifications | 6475 |
| 5 | BTEC Nationals Applied Science Student Book 1 | 5341 |
| 6 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 2 : For the 2016 specifications | 5129 |
| 7 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 2: For the 2016 Specifications | 4550 |
| 8 | CACHE Level 2 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care | 3915 |
| 9 | AQA A-Level Business | 3781 |
| 10 | CACHE Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner | 3479 |
| 11 | BTEC Nationals Information Technology Student Book | 2688 |
| 12 | BTEC National Construction Student Book: For the 2017 Specifications | 2602 |
| 13 | BTEC Nationals Sport and Exercise Science Student Book | 2591 |
| 14 | AQA A-Level Geography: For A-level and AS (4th edition) | 2500 |
| 15 | AQA A-Level Biology (Year 1 and Year 2) | 2138 |
| 16 | OCR Psychology for A-Level Book 1 | 1912 |
| 17 | BTEC Level 3 Nationals Applied Science Student Book 2 | 1786 |
| 18 | BTEC National Applied Law Student Book : For the 2017 Specifications | 1651 |
| 19 | Psychology: the Science of Mind and Behaviour (8th edition) | 1578 |
| 20 | CACHE Level 3 Early Years Educator: for the Work-Based Learner | 1465 |
Support queries
Email: content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
Website: https://support.ebooksforfe.jisc.ac.uk/