Welcome to the March issue of our e-books for FE newsletter. In this month’s newsletter, we’re thinking about sustainability! Winter is drawing to a close and spring is upon us. Up and down the country, trees are turning out new leaves and flowers are blossoming. It’s also the perfect time to encourage your students to start making revision plans ahead of exam season.
Spring is a great time to think about sustainability; the giddiness of new year’s resolutions has worn off and it’s easier to tell which new habits you’ve been trying to form will be sticking around for good. We might take a moment this month to think about sustainability in our own personal and professional lives. Jisc is committed to sustainability, and we know this is a huge priority for many people, including school and FE learners, as demonstrated by the continued climate strikes. Read more about Jisc’s commitment to sustainability.
National Book Token Competition
February winner
We are excited to announce the winner of February’s £30 National Book Token. Congratulations to Varndean College, who achieved the number one spot in this month’s usage statistics.
Win a £30 National Book Token this March
To be in with a chance of winning March’s prize, we would like to know How do you promote sustainability in your LRC? Tweet us with your top tips for sustainability in the library by 31st March. We will announce the winner will in our April newsletter.
Webinar clinics
Thank you to everyone who attended our webinar clinic in February. To view the recording, please visit the webinar page of our support site. Our next clinic will take place on Wednesday 25th March at 2pm. This month, we’re focusing on the features available through Ebook Central’s online e-book reader. We have noticed that many users are printing large sections of the e-books, but this is contributing to high printing costs within organisations, as well as decreasing the environmental sustainability of the service. This tutorial will focus on the range of features available using the online e-book reader such as highlighting, notes, and creating online bookshelves. The tutorial will demonstrate how the e-book reader can be used to support learners with revision. The rest of the session will be devoted to your Q&A about any aspects of e-books for FE.
We don’t need you to register for the clinics. Simply login to the session on the day using the Adobe Connect room link. For more information, please visit the e-books for FE webinar clinic page on the Jisc training site.
If you have any suggestions for topics that you would like us to cover in the webinars, we would love to hear from you at content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
LibCentral username and password
In January we reset the credentials for the shared Jisc account which is used to access LibCentral reports. Should you wish to access the shared account to view your usage reports for e-books for FE, please contact content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk and we will supply you with the new username and password if you haven’t already done so.
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 | Organisation | User sessions |
| 1 | Varndean College | 2046 |
| 2 | The Cheadle and Marple College Network | 1813 |
| 3 | West Nottinghamshire College | 1762 |
| 4 | Farnborough Sixth Form College | 1443 |
| 5 | New City College | 1427 |
| 6 | York College | 1375 |
| 7 | College of Richard Collyer | 1347 |
| 8 | South Thames Colleges Group | 1187 |
| 9 | Uxbridge College | 1184 |
| 10 | Stockton Riverside College | 1145 |
| 11 | Middlesbrough College | 1127 |
| 12 | One Sixth Form College | 1117 |
| 13 | North West Regional College | 1024 |
| 14 | South and City College Birmingham | 957 |
| 15 | Grwp Llandrillo Menai | 905 |
| 16 | Ashton Sixth Form College | 898 |
| 17 | South Eastern Regional College | 888 |
| 18 | Sandwell College | 878 |
| 19 | DN Colleges Group | 868 |
| 20 | Leyton Sixth Form College | 832 |
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 | 6002 |
| 2 | BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 1 | 5549 |
| 3 | CACHE Level 3 Technical Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care EBook | 4444 |
| 4 | BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 2 | 3097 |
| 5 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 1 | 2918 |
| 6 | BTEC Level 3 National Business Student Book 1 | 2477 |
| 7 | BTEC Level 3 National Business, Book 1 | 2352 |
| 8 | CACHE Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner | 1948 |
| 9 | BTEC Nationals Applied Science Student Book 1 | 1721 |
| 10 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 2 : For the 2016 specifications | 1671 |
| 11 | BTEC Level 3 National Business Student Book 2 | 1353 |
| 12 | BTEC Level 3 National Applied Science Student Book | 1292 |
| 13 | Ocr Psychology for a Level Book 1 | 1225 |
| 14 | Anatomy and Physiology | 1018 |
| 15 | BTEC First Health and Social Care Student Book | 946 |
| 16 | AQA A-level Psychology Book 1 : For A-level Year 1 and AS | 928 |
| 17 | Psychology : The Science of Mind and Behaviour | 886 |
| 18 | BTEC Level 3 Business Book 2 | 838 |
| 19 | BTEC Level 3 National in IT | 794 |
| 20 | OCR Sociology for A Level | 779 |
The last word
Have you ever wondered whether e-books or traditional print books are more environmentally friendly? Even though you need an electronic device to read an e-book, they are more sustainable than print books for a few key reasons.
The first and most obvious is that they don’t use paper, so no trees need to be felled to make an e-book. They are distributed digitally, so there is no need to transport them or to store them in large, temperature–controlled environments. Reading on a device that is backlit may also reduce the carbon footprint of e-books as no additional light source is required to read.
Traditional print books have their eco-credentials – paper is recyclable, and unlike the electronic devices required for reading e-books, doesn’t require carbon-heavy mineral mining. If special measures are taking to ensure printing is always sustainable, such as using recycled paper and ensuring inks used are non-toxic, their carbon impact can be decreased significantly.
Support queries
Email: content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
Website: https://support.ebooksforfe.jisc.ac.uk/
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