[ISLMA-Share] (ISLMA-Share) Open eBooks

[Email list for the Illinois School Library Media Association]

Our high school qualified for Open Ebooks, and we've used it for a couple
months now. My students who read ebooks do like it. They like the 8 week
checkout, the book selection, and *especially *that there are no waiting
lists-- the simultaneous access is awesome! I like the book selection.

FirstBooks sent me 500 codes, and said we could request another order as
needed, but I haven't used all those yet.  Our school has 1:1 ipads this
year, & at school they are on our wifi, so at school students don't incur
costs. After students turn their ipads in for the summer, I assume if they
read on their personal device that uses data, they would have data charges
downloading their ebooks. Once the ebooks download, they can be read
without wifi/data.

How are other libraries handing out the passcodes? We already have eREad IL
3M Cloud library ebooks, which teachers graciously allowed class time to
set up, so I did not want to ask for time for whole classes to set up
accounts again. Instead, I offered Open Ebooks to those students who were
interested.

  I did some publicity with the student news broadcast, and then went into
all English classes before spring break, so readers could have it for
Spring break. I handed out bookmarks (attached) to anyone interested, and
then taped slips on the back with their passcode. It only took a few
minutes per class, depending how many students were interested. Sometimes
it was half the class, sometimes just a few. We have some students who
definitely prefer their paper books. I don't get any stats on Open Ebooks,
to have any idea how many ebooks are being checked out, and April will only
be the second month, to see how Open Ebooks effects the Cloud Library
checkouts.

Our readers have found books that interested them, and they LOVe
simultaneous checkout with no wait lists. Some of the books are young for
high school, but I also have a few students who were delighted to see those
particular books, so maybe that is who those 'younger' books are intended
for. Eight week checkout is long enough for quarterly book projects, which
had been a problem with 3 week checkouts for Cloud library. The app isn't
as flexible as the 3M Cloud library app-- it locked up  when I tried to
open my ebooks on a second device, and I had to reinstall it. Sometimes the
books won't download, and we have to try again in an hour, but eventually
it's downloaded. There aren't the highlighting features, as far as using it
in class, and the one small English class that tried to read a novel got
frustrated with the app locking up, and went back to paper copies. Another
teacher is thinking of trying it, though.  Has anyone else tried Open
Ebooks with a class or lit circles?


Marji Gibbs            gibbsm at salemhigh.com
Salem Community High School Media Center
1200 N. Broadway Salem IL 62881
618/548-0727 Fax 618/548-0727
www.salemhigh.com/mc/index.htm
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