Take heart, it appears the big six publishers are hearing the outcry from libraries about their e-book policies and are making an effort to produce a workable model specifically for libraries. Although the details of Macmillan’s prototype are not yet being shared, this article does a nice job of summing up the state of affairs with the “big six” at this point in time. Go to the Digital Shift for your cliff notes on this subject….
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E-Books Programming
Last Friday, I attended a virtual conference called eBooks: Benefits, Challenges, and the Future. The event was produced by Seflin, one of the multitype organizations in Florida. The programming was just excellent and included big names like: Stephen Abram (Gale-Cengage Learning), Chad Mairn (Novare Library Services), Nik Osborne, J.D. (Indiana University), Jamie LaRue (Douglas County Libraries, CO), and Sue Polanka (Wright State University). If you don’t follow these people online, you should consider doing so. These people are doing the deep thinking and hard questioning about the current and future state of e-books. What I appreciated most about the content was that it was a good mix of big picture thinking along with the down and dirty details of file formats, devices, and contract details too. We need it all!
I am hearing of interest in the Central MN region for programming around e-books, which we would like to provide in early winter. The challenge of such programming is finding the proper balance to meet the greatest need. Watch for more details and be prepared to respond to questions about your ebook needs.
As society conditions us to respond to the eight second sound bites, how do we slow ourselves down enough to still do the necessary deep thinking? Are we truly being reflective in our practice? I don’t know about you, but I am working on it, one day at a time!
Supplement Your Stretched Budget
GetEdFunding is CDW-G’s new website to help educators and institutions find the funds they need to supplement already stretched budgets. GetEdFunding is a free and fresh resource, which hosts a collection of more than 600 grants and opportunities culled from federal, state, regional and community sources and available to public and private, prekindergarten through grade 12 educators, schools and districts, higher education institutions, and nonprofit organizations that work with them. The site offers customized searches by six criteria, including 45 areas of focus, nine content areas and any of the 21st century themes and skills that support your curriculum. Once you are registered on the site, you can save the grants of greatest interest; then return to read about them at any time.
Click Here to Visit Website
This resource was extracted from the Big Deal Newsletter
Youth Should Read More Non-Fiction
Read this blog post as a reminder of the value and charm of getting kids hooked on nonfiction as well as fiction. As more schools move into 1:1 computing and away from print textbooks, it is inevitable that the role of non-fiction becomes more important. Read the post from the SmartBlog on Education, then weigh in here in Leave a Reply field below. Question: What percentage of your collection is nonfiction?
11 Amazing Librarian Tattoos
Wow, take a short break and view what some very brave librarians have had inked on their bodies as part of the Brand Yourself a Librarian project. Certainly not part of the job description, but a true show of passion!