Adventures with E-books, Part 2: The Positives

After several research projects this year (as you can see from our LibGuides), I am in a much better place to review the e-book platforms we have chosen to play with this year. I am reviewing them from the perspective of the upper school (9th-12th grade) that is in its first year of 1:1 iPads.

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is still a favorite for specialized encyclopedias. E-book reference is really the way to go, and if your reference collection isn't migrating online, it really should be. We also have some ABC CLIO ebooks and I am thinking of adding more, since their databases are also quite popular for introductory research at our school. Our upper schoolers now use the GVRL via the easy to use Gale iPad app, Access My Library. The students download articles as PDF's and highlight and annotate using PDF Expert. GVRL is also popular because the students can copy and paste the citations into NoodleTools.

Ebrary has  really caught on with our upper schoolers because of the scholarly content and fabulous keyword searching. Once the students see how they can use a massive library instantly (78,000 books and growing!), with easy bookmarking,  downloading, highlighting, keyword searching, and an iPad app to read the books offline, they are very happy. The teachers are impressed by the ease of access to quality information. [Update to my previous post, the copying and pasting from the app works beautifully into Evernote and the NoodleTools notecards.] The students also seem happy with the idea of reading the books offline via the app, but I don't know how many have done so. I have to review my ebrary usage statistics - but who has time? I know they are using it - I see them in the library. I will look it over when research season is over. Currently the 10th and 11th graders are using it, and the seniors are about to start.

A couple of students have found e-books in ebrary that we actually cannot access.  I would like to try the Paton Driven Acquisition process soon. Although not officially on my selection policy, I try to buy most of what my community recommends - that day. Sometimes they are even delivered the following day (thank you, Amazon). Those books will at least get used! I'd like to do the same with nonfiction e-books, so that will be my next thing to learn with ebrary, the award winning product that is becoming a favorite (even after all my complaints on the previous post).

Axis 360 hasn't caught on quite as much, because  our kids really enjoy reading in print, as many Americans do. I think that if more popular titles were available, it would be more consistent and students would use it more. Also, since I am not using it for anything curricular, the students are not really forced to learn how to use it. I am saving it mostly for pleasure reading, and some students and faculty are enjoying it, but I'd like a larger affordable selection.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures with e-books, and let me know about your adventures!

Adventures with ebooks, Part One

Maybe I should call this post Misadventures with e-books.. or If I think ebooks are Confusing, What about my Students?

Baker and Taylor's Axis360 ebook Magic Wall needs the Blio reader. That is quite a sentence. They have an OK selection of books (although some are triple the cost of others, and I'm not buying those), and the books appear in the Magic Wall within a day. Customer service is really helpful, and the Magic Wall is pretty, especially on the iPad. Blio is a great reader. And, the platform's price is very reasonable.

However,

• E-books for libraries are just more expensive than the alternative.
• Explaining how to access the ebooks is a chore (we are making a LibGuide and a blogpost about it).
• The Axis 360 MARC records don't work well in our ILS, Destiny! We have to manipulate each record individually so Destiny will show that 1/1 books are in (which will be wrong if something gets checked out, but it is better than it always saying 0/0 are in), and we change the link in the MARC record, so it actually states that you click on the link to get to the Magic Wall to download the book, instead of just being a wild looking URL. Lots of work.

So, why not get the Follett e-books, you might ask. They work seamlessly with Destiny, and the circulation status is very clear. Well, Follett takes  several days to deliver the books and the page turning is painfully slow. S-L-O-W. At least it is slow on our iPads at school. I will keep trying to see if the reader gets better.

Ebrary is a whole other can of worms. On the computer it isn't too confusing, and you can make a bookshelf for your books. You need the bookshelf login to use the app. But then the bookshelf doesn't show up on the app. In fact, the bookshelf has nothing to do with the app. You use the app to search and download from the catalog only on to the iPad. Notetaking on the iPad is essentially cutting and pasting, and then the note has the citation attached, yes, but ittakesoutallthespacessoitishardtoreadwhatwascopiedandpasted.Thequotationslooklikethis. What is the deal with that?
On the computer the notetaking is good, and you can email pdfs to yourself to read on the iPad offline, among other features. But why the 2 products with the same name don't talk to each other is a mystery and a drawback.

Have you found that your patrons like the e-book  options at your library?

Stay tuned for more on our journey, hopefully some improvements in the market, and maybe some feedback from users. I haven't yet rolled these sources out to big groups of users. I am enjoying the experimenting and investigating, and I think this year of playing will turn up interesting results.

Flashcard Wishes

I got stumped by a seemingly easy request this week. One of our Educational Technology teachers and I have been spending time finding a flashcard app that:


1. Allows for large images
2. Allows for lots of text on the other side of the card
3. Can be emailed or shared to small groups or individuals
4. Can be made on computer cloud version
5. Deck can be downloaded to study on an iPad without wifi
6. Can "shuffle" the deck of flashcards, mark ones that are difficult, exclude the learned ones, and other fun learning capabilities like that.

I have tried out a bunch of great tools, but none so far can do all of the above. This is  for an Art History teacher who wants to put ARTstor images on one side and all the notes about the piece on the other (here is my Intro to ARTstor LibGuide). You would think this would be easy to find, but all the ones I have tried so far are missing crucial elements. The best cards are on Gflashcards, but the sharing is limited because of ARTstor's understandable Terms of Use.
Do you know of one that works for all of these criteria? Please share!

Too Many Changes for the School Year?

I am hoping to blog in detail about our many changes and get your advice. Here is a list of the changes for the library for this school year:

Staff: I am now the Head Librarian for our East Campus (7-12 grades), and we hired an amazing new librarian to focus on our Middle School needs.

Tools: We switched from InfoCentre to Destiny, subscribed to ebrary, have Axis360 and Follett ebooks, new apps for databases, and a newly restructured NoodleTools. All this to go with our new 1:1 iPad initiative in the Upper School. Also, I left EZproxy for now and have a different way for students to locate passwords (on a google doc), I have a new look for my LibGuides, and now I need to rework all of them because of this change away from EZ proxy.

Rules: Finally the students will be allowed to drink in the library, as long as the drinks have lids. We have new beanbag chairs in our redesigned (by students) Fiction Alley, and I hope the kids won't use them as gymnastics mats or cuddling areas.

Programming: We have a new piano in the library for Friday afternoon music, I have to recruit new people to my Student Library Advisory Council and Book Club (because many of my previous members graduated), and I am open to new suggestions from my community.

First teaching task: I am teaching the art history students how to use ARTStor on Friday. A new part for me will be the mobile version, which supposedly has a great flashcard feature. I will teach the kids how to access it on their new iPads, teaching from my iPad using the new Apple TV which is installed in the library Lab.


Lots to do! I am so excited for Tuesday when we start the school year!

iPad Inservice

This week I taught three 90 minutes sessions as part of our faculty iPad inservice week. I taught the Productivity session, where I got to teach QuickOffice, Evernote, and Diigo (using these tools on school laptops and iPads) to groups of 10-20 faculty members. There were 3 other classes being offered by other specialists: iPad Basics, eBook Options, and Classroom Possibilities. I had a lot of fun actually teaching from the iPad as I walked around the room. I could also switch off between projecting from my iPad and laptop.  I would have loved it if the Smartboard worked with the iPad..maybe someday! The teachers had varying skills, but we all helped each other, and I had a great time. They loved it when I took their picture in an Evernote note, which was also very helpful for attendance. The most confusing parts to teach were adding Evernote's web clipper and Diigo's web highlighter to the iPads.
I am attending  an ALA session about Professional Development, because I see a lot more of this in my future (Leading Professional Development that Matters…and Works Friday, June 22, 2012 | 12:30 p.m.–4:00 p.m. Presenters: Debbie Abilock, Kristin Fontichiaro, and Violet H. Harada). I am already planning our August inservice week, where I hope to be teaching Your iPad and the Library: Access, Collaboration, Participation. Or something like that.. Do you have favorite Apps or iPad uses you think I should highlight (or get) for the faculty? Please share!

ipadinservice2

View more PowerPoint from elisabeth abarbanel

Great News from NoodleTools!

Friday I attended a webinar about the new version of the citing module of NoodleTools that will be available in late June. I am happy to say, I'm sticking with NoodleTools! After working so hard over the years to make this amazing citing, note taking, and outlining tool a large part of the K-12 Brentwood School research experience, I didn't want to have to change citation platforms. But NoodleTools really needed an upgrade. And an upgrade it is!

The Abilock team understands that we need to teach the students not only how to cite, but what they are citing, and that the tool students use needs to be flexible and not too complicated. Now they give us three citation levels instead of two, breaking the skills down even further so 2nd graders, 7th graders, and 11th graders or college students can all cite the types of resources they use. Engaging slides defining each type of source and how to find the elements needed for citing are available in each level. Teachers and Librarians can use these slides for instruction, or students have the option of seeing them while citing.

My students will especially appreciate  these highlights:
Quick Cite: They can now copy and paste citations from databases, and NoodleTools will offer some prompts to make sure the citation is edited if it needs to be. It will also mark on the bibliography that it is a copy and pasted citation, so students can go back and refine it later if needed.

WorldCat Integration:  Finally! Enter  a title and NoodleTools will offer up matching book covers and information so the student can make sure they are selecting the right one.

Archive and Annotate web pages: Using the iCyte bookmarklet,  students can keep copies of the sites and highlight on the screen.

Switch easily between types of sources: "Oops - I need to switch from citing a magazine to a newspaper, do I have to start all over?" Not anymore!

And like icing on top, all of these citing features work on the iPad, and later this summer the notecards and outlining features should work as well.

Some other  new features might please your students. For instance,  if your school teaches several citation styles, it is easier to switch between styles . Also, the notecard feature has a new layout that looks easier to navigate while writing notecards.

I did nto get to use NoodleTools myself, I only saw the webinar. I am very excited to see how it all looks live, and to share it with my students in the fall. Here is a video from NoodleTools all about the upcoming release. I will be able to write more after I actually use the updated product.

Thanks, NoodleTools!! The upgrade looks great!

Using the Library on your iPad

The faculty all received our iPads to start learning how to use them before the next school year. So far, I have sent out two emails about using the library on the iPad. I am thinking this will be a regular series from the librarians to the faculty and staff, and soon to the students. Next year I am hoping to do some in-person faculty training too, but for now, emails will have to suffice. We are heading into finals next week and everyone is very busy.
My first email highlighted using Gale's Access my Library App and the Britannica Online App which I just subscribed to for my school. Today's email is all about using ARTstor's mobile site and how I can help the teachers put together a collection for their students to use on their mobile devices. I wanted them to play with these databases over the summer to see how they can incorporate them in the fall.
I want the library's resources (including me, by the way!) to become more important, not less, when we go 1:1.