eBook Updates, pricing and trends

Based on an annual study from Follett and School Library Journal, we can see that the percent of school libraries offering eBooks has plateaued, although the size of the collections continues to grow:

Perhaps this is due to the disparity in pricing and availability, which while better than a few years ago, is still an issue for libraries.  Based on work pioneered at Douglas County Public Library, we looked at comparable prices for this year’s Abe Lincoln award nominees:

The above chart basically shows that a librarian could buy roughly 20 (21) hardcovers OR 40 paperbacks OR 18 ebooks for the same money ($320 to $325). That amount is roughly double the cost that an individual would spend on Amazon ($172) to buy the same eBooks or, again, roughly double the cost of buying one paperback copy ($161) of each title.  Prices are as of June 2016.  Perhaps we will see some movement in the future as more consolidations occur.  This past spring, Follett purchased Baker & Taylor and last year, OverDrive announced it was being acquired.

Do you have an interesting way to promote eBooks?  Let us know.  Interested in etextbooks use of digital content in schools? Check out this joint report from ASCD and OverDrive, published in April 2016.

Digital Resources from NYPL via " NewsHour Shares"

Just this past week in its NewsHour Shares, PBS mentioned the New York Public Library and its collection of digitized materials:




Not only are these 180,000 public domain digital resources available; the NYPL also has a searchable database of several hundred thousand resources.  Scroll down that page to see links for collections related to diverse topics like Fashion, Posters, and New York City. One can narrow the search to a specific time period or ask for a particular geographic location.  Many of the materials are photographs and postcards, giving a glimpse of everyday life.

Additional NewsHour Shares are archived here.  One I hope that they add soon is the way that Intel recently used programming, lights and music to simultaneously manipulate 100 drones, setting a record:



A longer video with more information on how Intel engineers created this project is available here.

Flashcard Exchange

With over 21 million flashcards, contributed by thousands, organized by tagging, these web-based tool has become a study aid to "absorb information efficiently and permanently".

View this Internet application where you can create, study, print and download flashcards.

Get down with DIRT - Digital Research Tools (DiRT)

This wiki collects information about tools and resources that can facilitate research more efficiently or creatively. It is a directory of tools organized by research activity, as well as reviews of select tools and their usefulness for research.

World Digital Library to launch April 21

UNESCO and 32 partner institutions will launch the World Digital Library, a web site that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world on 21 April. The site will include manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, and prints and photographs. It will provide unrestricted free public access to this material.

New Test Finds Student's Cyber Aptitude Wanting

I found this in the Sunday Tribune.

Just 52 percent of test takers could correctly judge the objectivity of a Web site and only 65 percent assessed the site's authoritativeness.
When asked to use a search engine to look for information on the Internet, only 40 percent entered multiple search terms to narrow the results.

Heyboer, Kelly. "New Test Finds Students' Cyber Aptitude Wanting." Chicago Tribune 18 Feb. 2007, sec. 1: 6.

I want to take this test and find out what my digital (The word cyber is so 90's.) aptitude is. I'd like to think I've got a step up on most people when it comes to digital literacy but the sad truth is that I find myself all too often turning to Wikipedia and Google (only) for a quick informational fix. I've asked several kids about what they would do if they had to look up Teddy Roosevelt and didn't know anything about him. They all said Wikipedia. Are some kids digitally illiterate or is it more about laziness? It's a lot easier to just jump to Google or Wikipedia than to query several different search engines or to browse several different websites.

We definitely need to educate our students on how to find valid information, but how will we fight digital laziness?

Questia Review is a Shonda

The August, 2006 School Library Journal contains a scathing review of Questia. Shonda Brisco from Forth Worth Country Day School in Texas obviously hasn't done a trial with students researching social issues. She basically trashes the service because of limited journal (496) and magazine (98) holdings. She dismisses the print book sources as too outdated. Brisco reports that "Questia offers very little for school libraries in content, currency, or coverage of common high school research topics." She grades it as a "D" because of its lack of breadth, depth and currency. In Yiddish, this is really a "shonda" .....the Yiddush term shonda means "a shame" or "a pity". It's a shonda that high school librarians will believe this review. It appears that Shonda merely attempted a few searches herself and didn't try it with a real research project of any substance with large numbers of students. Please see the Questia review and rebuttal from General Reference Center Gold:

Make a difference with databases: online resources can enhance learning, but choose well.(Digital Resources). Shonda Brisco. School Library Journal 52.8 (August 2006): p67(2).

Questia review: all wrong.(Letters)(Letter to the editor). Nancy Buchanan.
School Library Journal 52.10 (Oct 2006): p14(1).