e-books for FE March newsletter

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, temperaturecontrolled 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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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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