Novel Approach to Building an E-book Collection

Many traditional print publishers are reluctant to provide e-books to libraries for circulation. Students and staff are using a wide variety of personal devices to read e-content. Yet the demand for e-content is growing. Here’s a pragmatic approach to developing an e-book collection in your school that takes these challenges into consideration.


This presentation explores "state of the art" e-publications, e-reading devices and applications; the advantages and disadvantages of books in digital formats for students; and offers important criteria to consider when providing e-book offerings in school libraries and classrooms. Several sources for both commercial and free e-books will be shared. We will define “e-terms,” examine several options for accessing e-books and ways in which different types of books are used. Participants will discuss the ramifications of renting vs owning e-books and downloadable vs web accessed e-books.


The final outcome will be to relate e-book purchases to district learning and curricular goals determining individually which type of access best supports individual schools. Supported by engaging online tools designed to build interaction, expect a lively conversation that will leave all participants “confused at a higher level.”


GoSoapBox polls and discussion


Doug's writings on e-books


Turning the Page

Non-E-book Plan

What do I do with 5 Kindles (and lots of other blog posts - search the Blue Skunk for e-book)

Defining e-book related terms


E-book videos


Ten innovative digital books you should know about (O'Reilly)

Scholastic' Kids and Family Reading Report, 2015

E-books and collections for the high school library, March 2014

School Library Journal's School E-book Market Directory, March 2013


Interesting current offerings


Free e-book sites


Free Books: 100 legal sites to download literature

http://manybooks.net/

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Nook only - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/Free-eBooks/379003078/

Cheap Reads for Kindle: Free Books and Low Priced Reading Options

http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain

Simply E (New York Public Library)

BiblioBoard Public (free but must be a member)


DeBono - Plus, Minus, Interesting

The Non-Plan

Build “out” from reference – books used for research

Purchase only device “agnostic” and multi-user books

Support these initiatives:

• ELL

• Reading intervention (RtI, differentiation)

• Materials for CMS, 1:1 program

Community-wide reading program with MyOn Reader

25% of library materials budget with 50% funded by curriculum $$


Digital Books and Your Rights, EFF 2010


The Readers' Bill of Rights for Digital Books


We have constructed the Readers' Bill of Rights for Digital Books as a set of guidelines that can be consulted when purchasing a digital book, a collection of electronic books, or an ebook reading device. We especially hope it will be useful for those who purchase said items for permanent library collections. As readers of traditional print materials, we are already guaranteed all of these rights--and we should not be denied them due to the medium in which we are reading.


The Readers' Bill of Rights for Digital Books:

  1. Ability to retain, archive and transfer purchased materials
  2. Ability to create a paper copy of the item in its entirety
  3. Digital Books should be in an open format (e.g. you could read on a computer, not just a device)
  4. Choice of hardware to access books (e.g. in 3 years when your device has broken, you can still read your book on other hardware)
  5. Reader information will remain private (what, when and how we read will not be stored, sold or marketed)

We invite conversation and discussion of this document. It is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License