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e-book alot - e-readers - our story in Western New York
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From: Scottish Tea <scottishtea_at_gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:59:47 -0400
*Our story:*
I work with 98 school libraries. In June 2011, I have 2 school libraries that had small eReader pilots. In June 2012, I had 22 school libraries eReader pilots and now I have 24 school libraries with eReader pilots. And one large suburban district (some would say rural but for my area I say suburban) that is deploying eReaders for their whole Middle School Reading program and for their HS ELA programs in a few new ways. From March 2011 to June 2012 I did about 5 or 6 workshops in various parts of New York State on eReaders and eBooks. The demand continues to grow and grow.
The bottom line for me - I don't care if kids read the back of the cereal box, the complete lifesaver wrapper or on an eReader. What I want is kids engaged in reading in as many ways as possible.
Do I have any real data to share yet? - not right now but I have *a few anecdotes*.
1. Setting up a set of 12 eReaders in February 2012 - the librarian in one district did a great PR campaign and asked students to suggest titles for the incoming eReaders. One student suggested *Inheritance* by Paolini which is book 4 of the series. When the librarian went to add it to the eReader - he forgot about the previous three books. We had a discussion that it would be much better to add the previous three books in the series as well, but he was out of funds. I donated $25.00 to this cause (for two reasons - 1. I previously worked in this district and 2. I previously lived in this community - both great reasons to donate) but wait there is one more even better reason --- The next day when the student stops in the library to
take out the brand new eReader! The students' reaction to having all 4 books available - "Oh! now I can go back and read the first three before I read Inheritance." The student will now read 2,560 more pages or three more books. So my $25.00 investment per page was .009 cents per page.
The cost to make my true librarian heart sing - priceless!
2. School librarian lends out all her eReaders to teachers during the summer so they can learn and get the feel of reading on this device. Spanish teacher comes back and says - hey - I have a few great titles that we could use with our students in Spanish class to encourage more reading. Today, this librarian loaded those titles within 5 minutes and they are ready to go!
*The drawbacks* right now for eReader programming - the large district I am working closely with gave me a list of 12 books today they wanted on the eReader devices and only seven were available as ebooks.
Another drawback and this is a great discussion item - is the limited number of nonfiction books available in a portable eBook format. Yes, we see many nonfiction books in e-books but they are web-based and you will need the Internet to access them. We have so many rural communities in this country that just don't have good bandwidth to accomplish this.
The other issue is the formatting of a nonfiction book in the world of e-books. The maps, illustrations, charts, photos, etc.. are not able to be enlarged. They are typically anchored down in a section so they don't provide the impact they could have as well as they do in a traditional print nonfiction book. So this leads to the question - would it be better for a nonfiction book to become an app? For certain things sure but we don't have a universal file format for apps which again limits who gets access when iPads are $599 a piece and many districts will not let them go home .
One thing I have insisted in our e-reader pilot programs - the e-readers must be able to go home. All our pilot school libraries loan the e-readers out to go home with permission slips and no disaster stories at this time - here is hoping we never do!
My hope - more e-books - more e-readers - more readers!!! The kids are thrilled with this opportunity to be engaged in the electronic world of books.
A poll published yesterday at Huffington Post - entitled *Technology In Schools: Poll Finds K-12 Teachers And Parents Support Greater Digital Use In The Classroom* *
http://www.huffingtonpost
*
Let's hear your e-reader or e-book story.
Sue Bartle sbartle_at_e2ccb.org School Library System Director E2CC BOCES, Fredonia, NY
Received on Tue 11 Sep 2012 11:59:47 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:59:47 -0400
*Our story:*
I work with 98 school libraries. In June 2011, I have 2 school libraries that had small eReader pilots. In June 2012, I had 22 school libraries eReader pilots and now I have 24 school libraries with eReader pilots. And one large suburban district (some would say rural but for my area I say suburban) that is deploying eReaders for their whole Middle School Reading program and for their HS ELA programs in a few new ways. From March 2011 to June 2012 I did about 5 or 6 workshops in various parts of New York State on eReaders and eBooks. The demand continues to grow and grow.
The bottom line for me - I don't care if kids read the back of the cereal box, the complete lifesaver wrapper or on an eReader. What I want is kids engaged in reading in as many ways as possible.
Do I have any real data to share yet? - not right now but I have *a few anecdotes*.
1. Setting up a set of 12 eReaders in February 2012 - the librarian in one district did a great PR campaign and asked students to suggest titles for the incoming eReaders. One student suggested *Inheritance* by Paolini which is book 4 of the series. When the librarian went to add it to the eReader - he forgot about the previous three books. We had a discussion that it would be much better to add the previous three books in the series as well, but he was out of funds. I donated $25.00 to this cause (for two reasons - 1. I previously worked in this district and 2. I previously lived in this community - both great reasons to donate) but wait there is one more even better reason --- The next day when the student stops in the library to
take out the brand new eReader! The students' reaction to having all 4 books available - "Oh! now I can go back and read the first three before I read Inheritance." The student will now read 2,560 more pages or three more books. So my $25.00 investment per page was .009 cents per page.
The cost to make my true librarian heart sing - priceless!
2. School librarian lends out all her eReaders to teachers during the summer so they can learn and get the feel of reading on this device. Spanish teacher comes back and says - hey - I have a few great titles that we could use with our students in Spanish class to encourage more reading. Today, this librarian loaded those titles within 5 minutes and they are ready to go!
*The drawbacks* right now for eReader programming - the large district I am working closely with gave me a list of 12 books today they wanted on the eReader devices and only seven were available as ebooks.
Another drawback and this is a great discussion item - is the limited number of nonfiction books available in a portable eBook format. Yes, we see many nonfiction books in e-books but they are web-based and you will need the Internet to access them. We have so many rural communities in this country that just don't have good bandwidth to accomplish this.
The other issue is the formatting of a nonfiction book in the world of e-books. The maps, illustrations, charts, photos, etc.. are not able to be enlarged. They are typically anchored down in a section so they don't provide the impact they could have as well as they do in a traditional print nonfiction book. So this leads to the question - would it be better for a nonfiction book to become an app? For certain things sure but we don't have a universal file format for apps which again limits who gets access when iPads are $599 a piece and many districts will not let them go home .
One thing I have insisted in our e-reader pilot programs - the e-readers must be able to go home. All our pilot school libraries loan the e-readers out to go home with permission slips and no disaster stories at this time - here is hoping we never do!
My hope - more e-books - more e-readers - more readers!!! The kids are thrilled with this opportunity to be engaged in the electronic world of books.
A poll published yesterday at Huffington Post - entitled *Technology In Schools: Poll Finds K-12 Teachers And Parents Support Greater Digital Use In The Classroom* *
http://www.huffingtonpost
*
Let's hear your e-reader or e-book story.
Sue Bartle sbartle_at_e2ccb.org School Library System Director E2CC BOCES, Fredonia, NY
Received on Tue 11 Sep 2012 11:59:47 PM CDT
