1

Evidence based practice: promotion and tips

on how to raise FE e-book usage figures

Elaine Mulholland St Mary’s University College Belfast

2

PROMOTION PROMOTION

PROMOTION

Promotion and Tips: Accessing e-books

★ Add e-books to the Library Catalogue: (Marc records/import)

★ Make e-books visible/accessible

★ Signpost & promote e-books on the catalogue, e.g. use an icon

★ E-books are an ideal opportunity to raise the profile of your library, e.g. demonstrate the accessibility of e-books for inspections

★ Extend the variety of places where users can access e-books, e.g. link to VLE

3

Benefits of e-books

★24/7 access: the flexibility to access anyplace, anytime and anywhere ★Functionality: search, cut-and-paste, automatic citation, TOC, highlight text, text to speech, etc. ★Accessible via PC and mobile devices ★Portability ★Time saving ★Personalisation: save searches ★Benefits for learners with disabilities ★Benefits for distance learners working from home

4

Specific e-book benefits

★Highlight text

★Tools: Copy, print, definitions etc.

★Automatic Citation

Promotion and Tips

★ JISC funded e-books: spreadsheet of titles, by Subject

★ On-going Project: make e-book titles live links (start with the most popular subjects)

★ Ensure subject headings on spreadsheet stand out

★ Email to lecturing staff/users

6

E-mail with a difference

Promotional

Target Sheet:

8

Information Guides: Logging on/getting Started

9

STOP the

Barriers...

Make the invisible discoverable

10

★e-books have no value if they are not used ★In today’s impatient two-click culture, users will use the web if there are barriers to e-books ★Offer clear routes to e-books

★Students show little understanding of the distinction between the e-resources provided via their University or via the open web

Promoting and embedding e-books ★ Active promotion leads to higher use

★ Promotion requires initial effort e.g. inputting live links etc.

★ Get in touch with ebrary to incorporate your logo/branding

★ Sell your e-book service!

★ Subject specific bookmarks advertising e‐books

★ Put stickers on the hard copy etc.

★ Download /view the usage statistics for your college e.g. email to users/staff with the most popular titles

11

If you have used e-books from

your university library how did you

first find out about them?

“Colleges need to develop a strategy for raising awareness of

all types of e-books and developing academic literacy.

Teaching staff should also be encouraged to engage more

actively in pointing out to students the range of high quality

free and paid for e-book content that is available.”

(JISC Observatory Project ,JISC Collections, 2009, p. 27).

What next?

12

★Challenges for Libraries: provide clear access routes to e-content

★Discovery of e-content:

needs to be made as simple as possible

Thank you

13

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Elaine Mulholland St Mary’s University College Belfast

References

• JISC (2009) JISC national e-books observatory project: key findings and

recommendations (final report), Available at: http://www.jisc-

collections.ac.uk/Reports/e-books-observatory-project-final-report/JISC-

national-e-books-observatory-other-reports/ (Accessed: 19th November

2013).

• Google Images

• Wordle