Welcome to the May 2025 issue of our e-books for FE newsletter.
Research Assistant feedback
Member feedback about the Research Assistant AI feature in Ebook Central has highlighted the following points:
- Most of if not all Hodder titles have RA available
- No Taylor & Francis titles have RA available as yet
- Pearson titles are a mix: some do, and some (particularly the revision guides) do not
ProQuest have replied: “There are a number of reasons why the Research Assistant doesn’t appear on some titles in Ebook Central including publisher participation, user feedback, and type of book content. We hope we will be in a position to be able to provide it soon for those key titles mentioned. We don’t have a timeframe right now.”
EPUB vs PDF format
Some additional clarity on the ‘EPUB preferred’ policy in Ebook Central: PDFs are not being replaced by EPUB, it is just that EPUB will be the default format for an increasing number of titles as the switch-over takes effect.
Users still have the ability to toggle back to PDF, if that is their preferred format – see the how-to guide here, under ‘User Experience on Ebook Central’: https://support.proquest.com/s/article/Ebook-Central-LibCentral-Platform-Changes-EPUB-Preferred-FAQ?language=en_US
Top 20 users in April 2025
Well done to all organisations who reached a spot in the top 20.
| Rank | Organisation | User sessions |
| 1 | Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College | 2,592 |
| 2 | New City College London | 2,428 |
| 3 | Hills Road Sixth Form College | 2,290 |
| 4 | The Sixth Form College Farnborough | 2,060 |
| 5 | Varndean College | 1,707 |
| 6 | Richard Huish College | 1,276 |
| 7 | LTE Group | 1,213 |
| 8 | Northampton College | 1,169 |
| 9 | HRUC | 1,061 |
| 10 | The Trafford College Group | 1,056 |
| 11 | South Thames College | 1,044 |
| 12 | The College of Richard Collyer in Horsham | 968 |
| 13 | West Herts College | 855 |
| 14 | West Nottinghamshire College | 854 |
| 15 | Solihull College and University Centre | 833 |
| 16 | East Kent College Group | 710 |
| 17 | Birmingham Metropolitan College | 694 |
| 18 | Peter Symonds College | 691 |
| 19 | South West College | 630 |
| 20 | Bedford College | 627 |
Mergers / closing accounts: 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. You may also need to close an e-book account after a merger. Please email customerservice@proquest.com and Cc Jacqueline.Stringer@Clarivate.com with the relevant details.
Top 20 titles in April 2025
| Rank | Title | User sessions |
| 1 | NCFE CACHE Technical Level 3 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care | 4,640 |
| 2 | OCR A-Level Law (2nd edition) | 2,612 |
| 3 | BTEC Nationals Applied Science Student Book 1 | 2,137 |
| 4 | AQA A-Level Geography (5th edition) | 2,034 |
| 5 | NCFE CACHE Level 2 Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care | 1,995 |
| 6 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 1 | 1,896 |
| 7 | NCFE CACHE Level 2 Diploma for the Early Years Practitioner | 1,718 |
| 8 | WJEC Level 3 Applied Certificate and Diploma Criminology (revised edition) | 1,243 |
| 9 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 1: For the 2016 Specifications | 1,159 |
| 10 | AQA Psychology for a Level Year 1 and AS Student Book (2nd edition) | 1,106 |
| 11 | AQA A-Level Physics (Year 1 and Year 2) | 1,075 |
| 12 | OCR A-Level PE (Year 1 and Year 2) | 1,015 |
| 13 | Education and Early Years T Level: Early Years Educator | 1,012 |
| 14 | AQA A-Level Business | 979 |
| 15 | Digital Production, Design and Development T Level: Core | 968 |
| 16 | Pearson Edexcel A-Level UK Government and Politics (6th edition) | 937 |
| 17 | NCFE CACHE Level 3 Child Care and Education (Early Years Educator) | 914 |
| 18 | BTEC National Construction Student Book: For the 2017 Specifications | 899 |
| 19 | BTEC Level 3 Nationals Applied Science Student Book 2 | 854 |
| 20 | BTEC Nationals Sport and Exercise Science Student Book | 832 |
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