Promoting eBooks in School Libraries

Jessica King            

McCrea, B. (2013, March 14). Making digital libraries work, with or without BYOD. The Journal. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/03/13/how-schools-are-making-digital-libraries-work-with-or-without-byod.aspx

            In this article McCrea examines the attempts of two different school districts to bring eBooks to their schools and their students. The two school districts approached the idea from different standpoints and received varying results. In one school district the schools gave the students the devises preloaded with the books and received issues when students took those devises home and hooked them up to their personal computers. This, of course, resulted in a number of the devises having their data removed, which led the school to realize that devises are very personal. So, while letting the students use them at school could work, this did not transition to at home use because these devises were not the students. After that attempt the district tried a new approach through a school account on OverDrive, to allow students to access the eBooks on whatever devise works best for them. 

Another school brought eBooks to their students by creating a school Amazon account that they supplied school owned Kindles for and that allowed students with their own Kindle’s to borrow from. This school took an interesting approach by also engaging in patron-driven acquisitions with their eBooks and Kindle account. They encouraged students to look at the eBooks that were available for purchase as well as the ones the library already owned. Instead of focusing their eBooks on just curriculum support this district really dove into the recreation aspect. Although this system is working for that school now, they do caution that they have not done enough research to determine the long-term feasibility of it.

I found this to be an interesting article to read through because of the examples on how these schools are approaching eBooks. Most especially, in regards to how they were really pushing for their students to use the eBooks. It is one thing to purchase the books but another entirely to make students aware of them and involve them in the process. There is this idea that just because the book is electronic, a student will want to read it and this has led schools to purchase those strictly curriculum driven eBooks. I really liked the idea of having the students be involved by having that patron-driven aspect. This is not something every school can do or should do, but it does involve the students and makes them want to look through the collection to give their ideas on what needs bolstering.