The Migrating to e in UK Further Education report is available here http://bit.ly/cRUTF8

If you would like to order print copies please contact me on the details below.

In addition to the c.3,000 centrally purchased e-books for FE collection, FE colleges can now supplement their e-book collection by purchasing additional titles, evaluated and approved by the FE community.

JISC Collections and FE colleges evaluated e-books available from ebrary to create the e-Select Top 100 Collection. Titles were selected for their relevance to qualifications taken in FE, and provide demonstrable discounts for FE colleges (please note all 100 titles are listed on the order form, 93 titles are currently available on the ebrary platform, the additional 7 titles will appear soon).

All titles included in the e-Select Top 100 Collection offer unlimited, simultaneous user access (any number of users can access the same title at the same time). They are purchased in perpetuity and access to these titles, through the e-books for FE license, will be available to 31st August 2014. After this date, purchased e-books will remain available, though a small access fee may apply.

Please complete the attached order form (also available from the above website) and return it to sara@2info.co.uk.

 1. By all means, make sure that your ebooks are promoted directly to students in a lot of different ways e.g. links from catalogue, VLE, labels on shelves, induction sessions etc., but…

 2. Sadly, a lot of students are not inclined to read around a subject and will stick to reading pretty much exclusively what their tutors tell them to read. Generally speaking, if students are to use ebooks, tutors need to be on board. So…

 3. Identify some ‘gateway titles’ by going through your spreadsheet of ebrary titles and marking off the ones that you have multiple copies of on the shelves. With any luck, you should be able to find at least half a dozen ebooks which are also used a lot by your students in print form. Then…

 4. Plug those specific titles like nobody’s business – make sure that Heads know, but also ideally talk to the specific tutors teaching the courses that the books belong to. The message is pretty simple – we can’t supply 1 copy of this book for every student in print form, but it’s available online for everybody 24/7. So the next time your students complain that they can’t get hold of this book, tell them about the ebook option. Perhaps you would like to link to it from your subject page on the VLE as well ? There are some accessibility options that might be attractive to some of your students. And so on and so forth.

 5. Make sure all your library colleagues are able to recite a list of your ‘gateway titles’ in their sleep, so that when they’re talking to students and staff they remember to mention the ebook option when appropriate.

 6. Keep plugging away – all you need is one or two tutors to be telling their classes to use textbooks online to begin with. Unless you have an excessive number of print copies floating around, this should happen as the benefits are clear. If you or the tutor can spend a little time with the class getting them to practice using ebrary as a group to get them started, so much the better.

 7. Once you’ve got your foot in the door, word of mouth should spread with other tutors and students. I use the term ‘gateway titles’ because once they’re accessed ebrary to use one of them, students and staff may well then find other ebooks of interest.

 8. All of this takes time ! I normally expect any new eresource to take at least one full academic year to ‘bed down’ with students and staff. Some of them never seem to click, but you have certain advantages with promoting ebooks in that it’s easy to explain what they are and how they relate to courses. Throughout the year, tap into whatever staff development events take place in your institution and offer practice sessions/demonstrations.

JISC Collections has commissioned a team of consultants to undertake work on how e-books might best be provided to the FE sector and this survey will greatly influence their recommendations. We would like to know more about your current situation in textbook/learning resources provision and what is the potential for providing textbooks online, including how these may be paid for and incorporated into existing systems. The prize is Amazon vouchers worth £25 for each category of participant, please encourage your VLE manager, instructors and students to participate. To enter click here