I have recently bought a HTC Desire Z – actually the first mobile phone I have ever owned. I had been waiting until the technology advanced enough to make phones into true multi-function devices, and that time has now arrived. I have been impressed by the device as a portable PC (as covered on my personal blog) but am also interested in smartphones as e-book readers.

This phone uses the Android operating system: don’t worry Apple fans, I looked at iPhones some time ago. As my colleagues know I am not a fan of e-book readers as single-purpose devices but had been interested in how a smartphone could do the job of providing access both to e-books via online platforms, and e-books as downloaded documents. This was a topic I covered recently. I have had a mix of experiences so far. Online e-books on platforms such as Ebrary are not as usable as I would like, and I would avoid using them for that purpose unless absolutely desperate. But e-books downloaded onto the phone for offline use via one of the e-book reader apps are pleasantly usable. True, I wouldn’t want to read War And Peace on there, but if I was a learner and wanted to skim a chapter then that would be perfectly feasible. The main problem there is the DRM that most book publishers use would prevent you from reading the books on your smartphone unless you stick to freely available titles. A case of technology leaping ahead of culture, perhaps.

Below is a video of me browsing some e-books on the phone – apologies for the poor quality!

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Image from Manchester Central Library by ricardo266

Libraries are particularly topical at the moment: fantastic repositories of free learning (and in some cases, entertainment) materials. I often work with HE and FE librarians and LRC staff, however public libraries and the National Library of Wales also provide physical and online resources to everyone in Wales, benefiting people whether they are FE or HE students, or involved with adult and community education, schools or work-based learning.

CyMAL has just started a consultation on their proposed new strategic development framework for Welsh libraries 2012-15, called ‘Libraries Inspire’. The consultation can be found here. If you want to potentially have a say in the future of libraries and free learning resources in Wales then I recommend having a look, especially with the potentially grim future for public libraries. Full instructions for the consultation are on the site, and the consultation is open until 31 March 2011. There are also consultation events in Neath Port Talbot and Denbighshire on 8th-9th March.

If you are an FE provider using the E-books for FE collection then you will have seen this email. An extra pool of 60 e-books will be made available to FE colleges free of charge from the end of April 2010, under unlimited concurrent access. Yay!

Have your say

There is currently a consultation for FE colleges, where you can evaluate and rank the e-books submitted based on their relevance to qualifications taken in FE so that 60 titles (of the 250 submitted) can be selected for inclusion. You can download the spreadsheet of titles here. Take part or get other staff in the college to, and send your response to the project manager Anna Vernon by Tuesday 18th of January 2011.

How will the new model work?

Unlike all the previous titles, where a flat fee had been paid to publishers, this time a different, user-driven model will be used.

Publishers will decide the value of their titles and set it as a ‘cap’, the maximum that will be paid to them (this value will not be publicised since it is ‘commercially sensitive’). The publishers taking part (Cengage, Hodder, and Taylor & Francis) will be paid per page view. Once the number of views reaches the level cap then the title will continue to be free to use for colleges, since the publishers will have received the renumeration they expected for that title. If the cap is not reached then colleges could possibly pay top-ups to keep access for their institution.

Why do it this way?

1. It is an experiment to try out new funding models.
2. It avoids high cost for low use titles, as we have had with flat-out payments for some titles in the first round. JISC Collections will only be paying for titles that are actually used.
3. It is then in the publishers’ interests to promote the title and provide support materials, since more use = more money for them (up to a point). The old model could lead to a ‘take the money and run’ approach since they have already been paid, leaving little incentive to do more work.

Marketing and training

If you haven’t seen them, have a look at the two videos that discuss ways of using the collection here and here. They can be useful for introducing the collection to teaching staff and students. Also see this email – there are attachments that can be used for training.

Flickr CC image

Generally there are two types of e-books. Those that are designed to be read offline on portable devices such as e-book readers, and those which are designed to be read online through a browser. We have covered both types in this blog. However in some cases technology can blur boundaries, and with smartphones and other portable devices it is possible to also view things through a browser online, opening up both options via the same device. Does this work for e-book platforms? And if so, how good is the experience of using a browser connected to a small screen for reading e-books?

Both these questions were raised recently by Tim Hannah, Learning Advisor at Gower College Swansea, since the college is having an e-book promotion week in January and the college is keen on the potential of learning content via mobile devices. We therefore decided to do some further investigation together, contacting some e-book providers and also practitioners via the FE-LRC-WALES and E-BOOKS-FOR-FE JISCMail lists.

Technical possibilities for viewing e-book platforms via mobile devices

This was straightforward. We started with the free JISC E-books for FE collection since every FE college in the UK should be using and promoting it! The Ebrary platform is full of features. As Tim said in an email:

“I’ve just been demonstrating e-books to a class of Childcare students and they love the feature in ebrary where you can highlight a bit of text such as “childhood illnesses” , right-click and select Search Internet – Google and, in this case, took us to some excellent links in NHS Direct on the subject. This sort of function grabs the interest of the students and obviously is what e-books are all about (or should be) – multimedia like the CD-ROM in the ‘old days’.”

Basically any mobile devices that allows web browsing should also allow access to the E-books for FE platform. So smartphones and netbooks would be fine, even iPads (since E-books for FE doesn’t use Flash, which would have been a potential problem on an iPad).

However as expected the e-books do have to be read online – they can’t be downloaded to e-book readers. Ebrary informed Tim that:

“ebrary content is streamed and is not available for direct download. This means that ebook readers that require a downloadable file will not be able to access ebrary content. However, devices that have a built in web browser that has JavaScript enabled will be able to view ebrary content using ebrary’s QuickView. iPhones/iPads/iPods will work just fine. We are working on improving our User Interface for mobile devices.”

It is a similar with other online e-book subscription services such as DawsonEra and Myilibrary. DawsonEra told Tim: “I’m afraid we’re not currently compatible with e-readers but we are looking into developing this. However, dawsonera can be used on iPads & iPhones. They can be access as normal on Safari.”

An ideal system would be one that offered both online access AND the option to download to a device for offline reading. Chrissie Turkington from JISC RSC Northwest made some good points on this subject:

“It would be nice to be able to use collections like ebrary on off-line mobile readers, but this would not be a replacement for the current access method – this to me would be an added extra. If native e-book formats were adopted instead of online browser based content there would be a considerable number of learners unable to access e-books. I can’t see this changing in the near future either. What I can see changing are mobile devices such as e-book readers to accept more browser based online content. There’s already one dual-screen e-book reader that I know of on the market that is a “traditional” e-book reader on the left hand screen and a colour wi-fi enabled Android based tablet on the right hand screen. I personally think it is much more useful for e-book collections to work (and be readable!) on a multitude of online devices through a browser than it would be for the e-books to be delivered in native e-book formats.”

At the end of the day this incompatibility comes down to DRM restrictions, which help to protect publishers’ interests but make accessing and using information more difficult for learners. It will be interesting to see how future developments try to balance these mutually incompatible tensions.

The experience of viewing e-books online via mobile devices

Our main concerns here were related to how much text would be visible at once on the smaller displays. As Tim said: “What is the quality of the text displayed on a small hand-held device? I think you probably need a magnifying glass if you’re accessing from a Blackberry or similar.”

Lynne Evans, the Learning Resources Manager at Neath Port Talbot College has been trying out some e-book promotion innovations and also used the Ebrary platform on her iPhone:

“We’ve added QR codes to the covers of the dummy books we’ve created and I’ve tested them out with both ebrary and MyiLibrary. The codes link direct to the title in question. To be honest, I didn’t the find the experience to be a particularly enjoyable one, mainly for the reason that you’ve identified. After logging in you get the full web display in miniature and have to zoom in to make it readable. Constantly moving the display around to read the content is annoying and makes it difficult to follow the text. I had the same issues with ebrary and myilibrary.”

Dummy books are an excellent idea for promoting e-books and e-journals, added to the physical stock with a label alerting users to the fact that there is an e-version (usually via a URL). You can even use old VHS video cases for this. Combining it with QR codes for easy access works well. This is an area where you would expect the large screen of the iPad to be an ideal combination – except the current iPad doesn’t have a camera for snapping QR codes, so is a missed opportunity by Apple.

James Clay of Gloucestershire College included a photo of viewing an e-book on an iPad and said of the experience:

“Certainly readable and works okay. … Though it will work on the iPhone the screen is too small for the Ebrary interface, though I have read books on my iPhone using the iBooks and the Kindle Apps. … The Kindle can’t be used to read the books as the books are not available in Kindle format. It will be much more useful for learners once these collections are ALSO available in native e-book formats rather than limiting access just through a mobile browser, but I can’t see that happening soon. Of course browser access is ideal from a PC or laptop. … I have to say ebook platforms do still need a lot of work to make then more user friendly.”

Image by Cristian Eslava

I spotted today that a new article on e-book readers had been published in the latest issue of SCONUL Focus: “E-book readers: what are librarians to make of them?” The author looks familiar. I regularly get asked about the potential for these devices (and noted that the discussion is ongoing, e.g. see LIS-E-BOOKS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK yesterday), so I had thought it would be useful to have a single place where many of the main issues and studies could be linked to. And for anyone keeping up with this topic, it seems like a good opportunity to point to some other recent articles.

Reviews and DRM

After all, things move on, and there are new devices which I have hardly had a chance to look at. So this mini-review of newer devices by Justin The Librarian is a good follow-on. I was pleased to see my comments on DRM (Digital Rights Management – defined by me as ways of stopping you from easily using the things you have paid for) echoed by Justin when he mentions the irritations of DRM and the complications it adds to using the devices or transferring books to them. My feeling is that until the DRM goes there won’t be a boom in these devices. And whenever I speak to librarians or consumers, the same views emerge. In a recent article by Rory Cellan-Jones on one of the BBC blogs, “Kindle or iPad: Which will change reading?” the DRM-related comments by readers show it is a major concern for users of these devices. For example:

“I’m not very interested in walled gardens put up by giant corporations trying to corner a market. Not in the case of Apple. Not in the case of Amazon. And I’m not interested in the ‘concept’ that you don’t in fact buy an ebook, you are just buying the right to read it. Wasn’t it Amazon who disappeared the ebook of ’1984′ from all its e-book purchasers? … What might change the game is a reader, that looks and feels pretty much like a book, costs about £9.95, is open (and simple) architecture/operating system…. and when you’ve bought the ebook , its yours, not the property of some megalith corporation. The day some of these people assimilate all of this, then they might have a success on their hands”

This was mirrored by a comment from a contact of mine by email only this morning. The contact had recently tried the Sony PRS-505 book reader and said: “I found it a total faff to install the software, had to download all sorts of rubbish and sign up with Adobe, just to upload a document.” The serendipitous comment gives an honest user’s view, and would need to be considered in the roll-out of any service based on these devices. I can’t resist linking to this as another example of how users perceive the technical barriers DRM places in front of efficient e-book-based library services.

The music industry saw sense eventually: in 2005 Sony had got into hot water for its use of invasive and dangerous DRM (bad old days) – whereas in 2008 Sony caved in and dropped DRM, even from its digital music store. And suddenly people were interested in buying music again. Persuading publishers that this is how people work is not easy: however if it can happen with music then I am optimistic that it can happen with books, and if it does then a whole new world of simple-to-use e-texts could become available for the benefit of students, consumers and libraries. Until then the assessment continues.

E-books and libraries

The section above was about e-book readers: physical devices that allow you to read text on the move, usually in a form that is downloaded onto the device. However there are also the type of e-books which have been around for longer, where the books are read on your PC through a web browser, the books themselves hosted in an online platform. E-books For FE fits this kind of model.

So what about the implications of this form of e-books for libraries? A recent article in the US-based Library Journal summarised some of the issues e-books bring to the table for academic and public libraries: “Libraries, Ebooks, and Competition” By Eric Hellman. As with many technologies the conclusion seems to be that for libraries it could be a threat or an opportunity: a lot will depend on how we use it.

At the CyMAL Libraries for Life Advisory Group meeting on 25th June 2010 Priscilla Dawson and Mark Ludlam of Gower College Swansea delivered the presentation “E-resources in FE: 2010 snapshot”. One of the points made was that many e-books accessed via online platforms are ‘tethered’ i.e. not fully downloadable to a device. I love the phrase ‘tethered’ in this context and hadn’t heard it before, it seems to be a remarkably apt description. They also praised many of the features of the E-books for FE offering: fully searchable; text can be highlighted; notes can be made; pages bookmarked; plus the e-books platform includes features that are useful for those with print-related disablilities such as being able to change background colours, text sizes, and the text to speech facility. Their conclusion seemed to be that the e-books complement (but may not fully replace) existing print stock, an accurate summation of the state of play right now.

Staying on the topic of the advantages and disadvantages of e-books, the JISC National E-books Observatory Project (a precursor to E-books For FE) led to a number of studies. I only got round to reading “E-book use by academic staff and students in UK Universities: focus group report” by Chris Armstrong and Ray Lonsdale recently. For me the most interesting aspect was the inclusion of the perceived pros and cons of reading e-books from the screen as compared to a physical book, which matched many of my own thoughts. The main advantage of e-books tends to be that they are useful for reading short pieces of information rather than extended reading through a whole book. Their search facilities can also enable the quicker finding of key topics the reader is interested in (though possibly divorced of some context). However some of the negative perceptions include:

• still not as familiar and comfortable as printed books
• not as easy to concentrate on books on a screen (e.g. there is the distraction of interface, or the temptation to do other online things such as email or web browsing)
• scanning and browsing is more difficult with e-books (i.e. because you have to scroll up and down as well as navigate through the e-book)
• working with multiple books is perceived to be more difficult on the screen than with physical books
• e-book interfaces (which are in addition to the operating system and browser interfaces) take up a lot of the screen, often squashing the actual book into a small letterbox
• zooming in destroys the page format

The future

So there we have it: a quick tour of some of the current thinking about e-books. They remain a hot topic, and the future of the format will be an interesting one. There is no doubt that e-books will become more important: one of the findings of the recent Eduserv E-book Survey was that “A significant growth in the use of e-books is predicted over the next two years, with 77% of respondents thinking that use of e-books double or more than double”. New tools like Eduserv’s E-book Finder (it works via print ISBN – read about it here) will continue to be developed to help in making purchasing decisions. And maybe some of the classic books of yesteryear will get a new lease of life and become available again in e-editions…

E-books fulfil certain roles brilliantly (distance and 24/7 access, accessibility features), but the format is not yet mature and there are currently caveats that we all need to be aware of.

Bookmark - Courtesy of SecretLondon123 on Flickr

I’m often finding I need to collect some good web resources on a topic to share. Whilst we have been using delicious to collect and share our bookmarks, sometimes that doesn’t quite seem to do them justice. Delicious has the following great “pros”:

• Quick and simple to bookmark, particularly with the integrated browser toolbars and buttons
• Tags are powerful and flexible
• RSS feed of tags allows you to embed your bookmarks in the VLE or anywhere else you need to display them
• Graphical display of tag cloud can be a good visual aid
• Others can subscribe to your RSS feed (or any combination of tags) to keep up with what you are bookmarking

It also has a few “cons”, mostly on the display side:

• Not much space to add your own comments to a link (1000 characters) and no formatting e.g. you cannot include another URL in a comment. (This is something I feel quite strongly about as a user/student – don’t just give me a list of resources, tell me why they are important!)
• It’s not pretty: very basic display with no images or graphics to make it look nicer.
• Limited control with RSS feed or delicious to order how your links are displayed e.g. you cannot choose how to prioritize them

So I have been investigating a few social bookmarking tools which add a bit more functionality. This may be of use to LRC staff or teachers who need to show their students a collection of web resources with some added guidance notes. Some of the resources below can also be embedded in a VLE or website quite easily. They provide a more controlled and graphical way to peruse a collection of web resources without having to repeatedly open new windows or tabs. Some of this could be accomplished by the Intute Informs tool. This resource is currently limited to UK HE and FE but is soon moving to a subscription model. Here I have limited my search to free, open tools. I only had a fairly quick chance to look through some of these but here are some I tried earlier:

1) Diigo has social bookmarking and more. You can bookmark a site, tag it, add it to a list, highlight areas of a webpage, add sticky notes to the web page, collaborate on it, share your collection, display it as a “webslide”. All rich, good functionality with a pleasing interface plus a powerful Firefox Toolbar (presumably other browsers too). I like the Webslides (Short example: http://slides.diigo.com/list/rscsam/Using-Maps-in-Education) but am struggling to get any notes to appear. The one at the beginning is dominated by adverts. You can only add public notes once you are a “trusted user” to avoid spam. Requires more homework for me! It is still in beta.

2) LiveBinders – a way to collect things in web “binders”. This not only includes bookmarking websites but you can also add other content such as documents/images. There is a good blog post on how it could be used in education, even as a free portfolio tool if privacy and reliability (it’s a 3^rd party tool after all) aren’t too much of an issue. I have to say I find the interface very clunky indeed and it displays like an old-school Powerpoint, but the basic functionality is good. You can see a short example here: http://livebinders.com/play/present?id=18332.  There is the option to embed the Binder in another website too.

3) JogtheWeb is another site in beta but it has a very good, clean interface. I had a few teething troubles getting my account going and also it didn’t seem to like my Netvibes page so I had to take that out, but otherwise it seems to work very well. Here’s a very short example: http://www.jogtheweb.com/run/BWbNivxOG8Xn/RSC-Wales-Learning-Resources.

4) Back to Delicious which now has a beta option to “Browse these Bookmarks”.

Screenshot from Delicious

This means you can stepthrough the websites one by one. However you do not get to see any added description or text and there is no control of the sequence other than the order in which they were added (most recent first) so it is really quite limited. You can save a link to a presentation but it is not obvious. You do have the option to save to your own delicious quite easily if browsing someone else’s bookmarks so this is more of an enhancement to using Delicious for resource discovery. A useful option but not so much a tool in its own right. Try it here with RSC Wales’ Media Literacy Resources: http://delicious.com/browsebar/user/rscwales/media_literacy#id=5802f3c4a627d1da9c9dc30035139efe-0

These are just a handful of sites that I have tried and there are plenty more out there. The fact that several of them are in beta means it is probably not a good idea to put all your resource eggs in one basket until they have become truly established players in the social bookmarking world. Even so, it is good to experiment with new methods of displaying useful resources which may entice more students to take notice.

I quite enjoy ‘day in the life of a librarian’-type articles, comparing what I do and how my own time is spent with that of other librarians! Similarly, some people may wonder what an E-learning Adviser (Learning Resources) actually does. There are many elements to the job Sam and I share. At its core we work with our supported community to identify needs and problems where technology can help, in order to benefit learning, teaching and research. For Sam and I our supported community is primarily LRC managers and librarians, but it is not limited to them, since learning resources are also relevant to teachers, ILT champions, other sectors such as Work-Based Learning and Adult and Community Learning; and learning resources usually involves working with technical staff.

At the macro scale we help develop strategies, work with networks and encourage peer support, promote relevant resources and technologies and best practice, direct people to relevant services that can help (such as the various JISC services). We monitor new technologies and assess their usefulness for enhancing teaching and learning.

As well as the big stuff like that we also respond to queries (receievd by phone or email, or arising from visits to LRCs). I feel that this is an important part of the service – we are one of the places you can turn to with technology questions. We may not always give the direct answer ourselves, since in many cases the solution might be to put the person in question in touch with the person/college/service that has the answer. But our knowledge of the sector and our contacts locally and nationally (e.g. in RSCs across the UK) means we have a wealth of experience to call upon.

During some weeks about half my time is spent responding to queries that come my way via various means. I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the ones I have dealt with in the last month just to show the range of topics and technologies that are relevant to learning resources; also in some cases to share any useful things that were discussed. This is just a selection of those I dealt with, I have missed out some queries about particular resources and franchised courses. It also doesn’t include queries dealt with by Sam (if I included those too then this would be an epic post!) If this is useful then we might do a combined one in the future. So, in no particular order, here are some direct queries from a month in the life of an E-Learning Adviser (Learning Resources). What has been on the minds of librarians in Wales in the last 30 days? Read on to find out.

E-books for FE Project / E-book readers / Exemplary LRCs / Access management / Film-related queries / Hairdressing Training / Grants and funding for staff development / Voting systems / Second Life / RSS / And to finish…

E-books for FE Project

One college asked for more information on the 18 new e-books available as part of this project.

The new titles are:

Anatomy and Physiology for Therapists
Child Care And Early Education
Core Themes in Health and Social Care
Nail Artistry
Beauty Therapy Work Based Learning Level 1 Candidate Book
Beauty Therapy Work Based Learning Level 2 Candidate Book
Beauty Therapy Work Based Learning Level 3 Candidate Book
Equality in Early Childhood
The Official Guide to the City and Guilds Certificate in Salon Services
An Holistic Guide To Massage
‘An Introduction to Children with Special Needs 2nd Edition
The Art Of Dressing Long Hair
BTEC National Business Student Book 1
BTEC National Business Book 2 2nd Edn.
Carpentry & Joinery L1 Candidate Book
Play and Care for Children 4-16
BTEC First Construction Student Book
Microsoft Office Excel 2007: Introductory Concepts and Techniques

Details should have already gone out about accessing the new titles and adding OPAC records, so make sure you are subscribed to the E-BOOKS-FOR-FE@JISCMAIL.AC.UK mailing list to be kept updated. Anna Vernon is the project manager and can add you if you are not on the list already.

With the E-books for FE project there is also the E-select Framework, which enables the college to pay to add extra titles to the Ebrary platform if you wish to build the collection further.

Some colleges are in the process of setting up access to the E-books for FE project. For the colleges without OpenAthens or Shibboleth it is a bit more difficult and RSC Wales is helping out when it can.

E-book readers

This is a topic that turns up regularly, and we have only covered them in detail once in the blog (with an addition here). One librarian asked about whether e-book readers are being used and promoted much in colleges yet, or in universities. Perhaps it could be a way of saving paper in terms of all the PDFs students normally print out!

A lot of libraries in the UK are buying these devices, then often wondering what to do next. As such I wrote an article for the next issue of Sconul Focus which has a summary of my thoughts and further links – it should be freely available online in July and I will link to it then. In the meantime I’m happy to forward a pre-print if you contact me. The article isn’t wholly in praise of the devices. The RSC always adopts the viewpoint that we should use technology where it is appropriate, and to understand the appropriateness you first have to be aware of the potential uses and limitations. We never promote technology just for the sake of it.

It is true that e-book readers can display pdf journal articles too, they are not just limited to books, but I think that unless a student owns their own device (so they have guaranteed access) they are still likely to print articles even if the library makes devices available. This is perhaps inevitable with a lot of technology loan stock, since people will always go for the quickest option if they feel time-pressured.

There are a few links in our Delicious account which could be useful. Do let Sam and I know if you try any services with these devices, we love to hear what colleges think! It helps to inform our opinions and subsequent advice to others.

Exemplary LRCs

One college was very interested in visiting exemplary LRCs and libraries from any sector outside of Wales (since they have seen many of the new buildings and are aware of most of the good practice here). They were interested in good use of technology and exciting learning space design.

This is a good example of where being in contact with my lovely colleagues in the Regional Support Centres elsewhere pays off! Contacts in a few UK areas sent me suggestions of possible places to visit in their regions. Obviously this is limited to a small selection of the many fantastic colleges in each area. Some recommendations were:

• The Fylde College in Blackpool.
• Liverpool Community College’s new building which won’t be ready until 2011.
• There will be a new LRC in Crewe at South Cheshire College next academic year.
• Warwickshire College has a variety of centres across the six sites.
• Birmingham Metropolitan College’s Sutton Coldfield Centre has a newly refurbished LRC which is very colourful, flexible and innovative.
• Aston University library is having a major refurbishment at the moment.
• Warwick University’s Learning Grid (student-run) is an interesting learner-centred space.
• There are several recently completed new builds in the Midlands area: Joseph Chamberlain College, Walsall College, Newcastle Under Lyme College.
• South Bristol Skills Academy – opening for learners in September this year but there may be tours in the Summer – will be very open plan and potentially fun.
• Gloucestershire College – Technology Exemplar College.
• South Devon College – Technology Exemplar College. South Devon College was also one of the colleges featured in the JISC InfoKit Technology Enhanced Learning Environments.

Access management

I had been asked about third party support for setting up Shibboleth. There is a JISC Guide to Third Party Providers for FAM which is the best starting point. Soon almost half of the FE colleges in Wales will be using Shibboleth if all the ongoing projects come to fruition.

I also had a query about institutions merging where the libraries were using a particular access management system and how they might manage it.

Film-related queries

One college had been approached by the Motion Picture Licensing Company which apparently claimed that as a library they should take out a subscription. I have spoken to a few librarians who have been contacted by various copyright licensing and performing rights organisations, sometimes with quite intimidating hard-sell letters that imply that without taking out a licence they are breaking the law. In many cases this is extremely misleading and taking out a licence is unnecessary. If you are unsure of where you stand then it is worth contacting JISC Legal for free advice. Never pay for licences automatically as a result of these letters. There is only a limited pot of money, and it is far better going towards learning resources to support the students and staff than paying for licences that you may not need.

Film is a medium that raises many legal questions for libraries. One college asked about recording from the TV. They hade an ERA (Educational Recording Agency) licence but wanted to check that they were making full use of it, and whether they could record and store TV programmes to stream later on. The ERA have a useful FAQ which covers what can and can’t be recorded, what can be done with the recordings, labelling etc. Obviously to get the most out of the licence your staff need to know about programmes ahead of broadcast so that they can be recorded. There are many online services with television listings – one that is used in educational institutions is TRILT (Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching). There is a basic search for free which only goes back a few weeks, but does let you search for programmes on selected topics in the future, just by typing in keywords. If it is heavily used then it is possible to get access to the full version by joining the BUFVC, though that costs c. £474 p.a. The main advantages are access to lots of materials which support media courses; custom auto-alert emails for forthcoming programmes up to 10 days in advance; and the ability to get DVD copies of programmes which have already been broadcast but which weren’t recorded by the college. Details here.

As to recording and playing back TV, an ERA licence allows a college to do this:

“How can I store recordings? Recordings can be made directly onto video or audio tapes, DVDs and CDs. Digital recordings may also be stored on a licensed establishment’s server. Appropriate security systems must be in place to ensure that only authorised students and teachers can access the recordings. Access is limited to within educational establishments unless an ERA Plus Licence is secured to cover agreed off site access (see section on ERA Plus).”

So there is also the ability to take out an ERA Plus licence for further streaming options if you want to provide off-campus access.

While talking about online TV and education, this is a bit of a tangent, but Teachers TV is a really good resource for teaching staff – useful  for anyone that is interested in education.

Hairdressing Training

Following a revamp of Hairdressing Training one college pointed out that free access to Hairdressing Training is due to expire in July 2010 and asked what will happen after that date. Unfortunately it is impossible to say for sure at present – JISC Collections are still in negotiations about it, and are awaiting confirmation of funding.

Basically there are two elements to Hairdressing Training. There is one part that has been bought in perpetuity and so will always be free. Those are the bits that can be accessed on the site without logging in. Even after July they will still be available.

Then there are the parts that are only available after registration and logging in. JISC Collections is still in negotiations about that area, and hope to get a definite response soon – if the funding is available they will extend the access again. Either way they hope to make an announcement in the near future.

Grants and funding for staff development

We received a query from a librarian who wanted to go to our Learning in a Digital Wales event, but there was no budget left in the college’s staff development fund to cover the costs, so we were asked if there were any grants or bursaries that might help with the cost.

CyMAL could potentially help here – they fund bursaries for staff conferences. The information required is available here: scroll down to click on the ‘workforce development support’ document which outlines what they will pay for (usually conference fees only). Then you would need to put in an application to CyMAL. Alyson Tyler said the turnaround is 1-3 weeks. The Information for Applicants document is on the same page, along with the application form.

CILIP Wales and CoFHE may fund conference costs too.

Voting systems

One college had been in touch about the Turning Point voting system and its use in LRCs. This may be something to look into again, or to discuss in an LR Managers’ meeting. What are people’s experiences? Do the benefits outweigh the set-up and training time?

Second Life

I had some questions from a college about Second Life and other virtual worlds, and how students might collaborate online in a virtual world.

RSC Wales have a collaborative area in Second Life which we use for meetings, and it is a good place to start – let us know if you ever want us to show you around!

Our Delicious account has various links which might be of interest for general information. The virtual world snapshots of activity in HE and FE are also worth reading. The latest one says:

“As with all the previous snapshots, Second Life remains the virtual world ‘of choice’ for UK academics who responded to the survey. However, also as with previous snapshots, other virtual worlds are in use, such as OLIVE at Coventry University for emergency planning, and OpenSim at Leeds for handling large numbers of art and design students.”

RSS

I also started looking into a query today about RSS and using it to promote library news, linked to the OPAC.

And to finish…

I can’t resist adding a new technology I came across last week, raised as part of a discussion about noise in libraries. The SoundEar is a ‘visual noise indicator’ with a built in microphone that displays a green light to indicate that it is monitoring. As the pre-defined noise limit is approached more of the ear lights up, and when the noise limit is exceeded the device signals this by lighting up the red ear and the word ‘Warning!’. It is designed to be placed on the wall of an area which you want to keep at a reasonable level of noise (e.g. a workstation room). Apparently it can be useful as a way of getting students to self-regulate their noise levels by giving visual feedback. So now technology can even help to keep libraries and computer rooms as places suitable for learning!

We were lucky to have EDINA come down to Wales from Edinburgh this week – braving clouds of volcanic ash – to run a training session on Digimap at Swansea College. I went along as Digimap is one of those resources with which I have never fully got to grips in the past.

Digimap Ordnance Survey Collection is the Rolls Royce of online maps with the most comprehensive set of Ordnance Survey data allowing maps of all scales and detail to be displayed and explored. The maps can be accessed via their web interface recently updated with functionality which is also being extended to their other products such as Historic Digimap. It is also possible to download the map data to use with your own GIS or CAD software for serious mapping & manipulation. Whilst Digimap has relevance for many subjects at HE level – to map research data for example – it also has its share of FE users.  Here we can see (just about – sorry for the bad photo) Swansea College staff displaying their map produced for a college walking project:

Details of the Digimap subscription rates can be found on the JISC Collections website although details post-July 2010 have yet to be released. Many thanks to Viv from Edina for a great day’s training and also to Swansea College for their excellent hospitality. I know Karl will forgive me for displaying their non-vegan but extremely exotic creme brulee:

In case you are wondering, it tasted like candyfloss.

Thursday 4th March: World Book Day 2010

Thursday 4th March was World Book Day (there is a separate site for Wales here). As with last year, many colleges in Wales took part. Below are details of some – feel free to send more details, photos etc. and I will upload them here.

Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor

The college celebrated World Book Day by holding a sponsored walk, along the Tree Trail on the Glynllifon site (though all sites participated). The Park warden led the walk and money was raised for Ty Gobaith.

Coleg Ceredigion, Cardigan Campus

The college has a group of reluctant readers and the LRC encourages them to log onto lovereading.co.uk (one of many useful reader development sites). There they read and print off the first chapter of their chosen book. If they decide they really like it then the LRC buys two copies of that book, one for the student and one for their tutor, with the plan that they will read the whole book together during special reading hours. This was promoted heavily for World Book Day.

Aberystwyth University

Here is a Higher Education example from Wales. Aberystwyth University celebrated with a number of linked activities: a quiz, e-book readers demonstrations, desert island books display, a book swap, and a collaborative story. Read their World Book Day Report here (PDF, 940KB).

Friday 5th March: E-books exchange of experience

On Friday 5th March I attended this e-books event organised by WHELF (Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum) and held at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. The day was bright and sunny, so I made a point of walking from the city centre to the campus – an hour of quality thinking time!

The morning of the event consisted of librarians from three of the universities (Swansea University, UWIC, Cardiff University) talking about their e-book collections. It was interesting to see the scale of some of the subscriptions, and the range of suppliers used.

One topic that recurred was the issue of publicity for e-books. Many ideas were suggested, some of which included:

• Dummy books for specific titles in the relevant places on bookshelves which point to the e-book availability. Dummies can be made from old VHS, CD or DVD cases.
• Stickers on physical books when there is also an e-version, alerting the user.
• Emails promoting e-books.
• Guides e.g. to using Ebrary.
• Links from the library catalogue to individual titles.
• Promotion on the web pages.
• ‘E-book of the month’ posters.
• E-book posters on the bookshelves.
• Displays.

[As an aside, e-book promotion is something discussed on the E-BOOKS-FOR-FE JISCmail list - subscribe or read here.]

Many of the benefits of e-books were highlighted:

• Increased access to titles in high demand.
• Students can’t hide the e-books!
• Get round the problem of limited physical storage space.
• Support learners when they are off-campus.
• The usage statistics allow an evidence-based approach to appropriate title selection.

Also some of the challenges e-books present:

• Some users/staff don’t really like them because large amounts of text can be uncomfortable to read on the screen.
• Too many e-book platforms. Too many different procedures for different aggregators. Aggregator policies inconsistent. Access – interface overload.
• E-book pricing inconsistent.
• The problem of getting new editions.
• Some problems with MARC records.
• e-ISBNs are a bit of a mess.
• Finding the time/resources to catalogue everything – should we include freely available e-books?
• DRM.
• Resource discovery (especially for off-campus students).
• Future access from mobile devices.
• Statistics – not always Counter compliant, hard to aggregate, a pain to review.

The general feeling was that a critical mass has yet to be achieved in the e-book collections, but they are inevitable part of the future of resource provision.

In the afternoon I gave two presentations myself, a short one on the E-books for FE Project, and a long one on E-book Readers and their potential uses for libraries. If you are interested in the latter subject then I have written an article on it which should appear in the next issue of SCONUL Focus – I will link to it from here once published.

It seems that every day we hear about new technologies, tools and websites. The question is always: does this enable us to do something new, or perhaps to do something in a better way? Learning technologists focus on how the tool can enhance learning. My focus is a more specific sub-question: how can this tool improve the library service for users, enabling them to find, evaluate and use the LRC resources more effectively in order to enhance their learning?

I thought I would bring together a few tools or sites that I had played with over the last year:

• QR codes
• Cartoons
• Animoto
  
• Crosswords
• Quizzes

QR codes

The basics of these have already been covered by Sam. I have been following examples of use, from US studies of their potential, to commercial uses such as Google’s ‘Favorite Places’. I also tried things out using my work mobile phone, and was impressed at how easy it was. You just have to download some software to your phone if it isn’t already on there (I used QuickMark software but I have also heard good things about the Kaywa Reader). Then you can point your phone camera at QR codes and in a fraction of a second the code is deciphered and displayed on the screen. You can make your own (e.g. try here or here), or point at the code below.

How might libraries use QR codes? Below are a few ideas:

• QR code on textbooks in the library – scan to get a subject guide to resources that area (e.g. catering), including classmarks to look at, core texts, useful magazines, websites etc.
• Fiction collections – scan the code to get the e-book version, e.g. from
  Project Gutenberg if it is a classic text.
• Reference collection book – scan the code to go through to a reference
  website on that subject (e.g. online dictionary or style guide), or the library’s own virtual reference collection.
• Posters linking to the relevant web pages. Or notice boards could have
  QR codes next to headlines, which when scanned take the user through to a blog entry on that subject.
• Used as part of induction, for an innovative quiz where there are blocks of QR code information around the library, with a sort of treasure hunt following QR code clues on signs and hidden in some books. Students would be lent a phone if they don’t have their own. The hunt would involve using library resources such as the OPAC, and only if things are done in the correct order will they get the correct final code (which might open a safe; be a classmark for a book with a voucher in; it could be a map reference; or something more imaginative).
• Library cards could have QR codes with user information on, or to take the user to their library account on their phone so they can renew books etc (after some other form of authentication too, of course).
• Other uses for QR codes on a physical item, enabling users to see the
  catalogue record, reviews, similar items etc.
• On the OPAC so users can get locations, classmarks and item details onto their phone for finding item on shelves, or adding to bibliographies. This was done at Aberystwyth University as one of the mobile phone enhancements (the OPAC also has the ability to send an SMS with item details to a mobile phone). To view the QR code function, search the OPAC then click on the “QR code” link in the “Availability” section when viewing a record.
• To provide context specific help and information in the library, as
  at Huddersfield University.

Will any of this be commonplace in LRCs in 5 years? Let me know if you are
using them yourself!

Update 27 April 2010: I have just become aware of this article by Andrew Walsh, ‘Quick response codes and libraries’ (2009).

Cartoons

Librarians are always looking for ways to get information across to users. Pictorial methods are attractive, but not many of us have any artistic talent. That is where sites like Bitstrips come in, since with Bitstrips it is easy and quick to create a cartoon. You can design your own characters to appear in it, or use the hundreds that are provided on the site already. The system is easy to use – pose the figure, choose a facial expression, stick some props in the background, and add a text or speech bubble; then tweak until you are happy with it. The end result is that you can link to the cartoon on Bitstrips, or download it as an image to use in newsletters and on notice boards. Bitstrips are obviously aware of educational uses, since they have recently launched ‘Bitstrips for Schools‘.

I created a few for my RSC Wales job, see the RSC Wales LR Netvibes account. Also in my other role at Aberystwyth University, to promote our federated search tool. The fact that it is so easy to edit the cartoons means it is simple to go back in and create a Welsh version.

Animoto

I have always been a fan of Animoto. It is a site that lets you upload images and select music, and they get mixed together into a video slideshow which can then be viewed online, embedded on a webpage, or downloaded. In the early days you had to add words to an image yourself if you wanted text, but nowadays there are options to include titles and subtitles, and even to incorporate video clips. The basic version which creates short 60 second clips is free to use; however I took out a subscription so that I can create videos of any length.

I have used Animoto in various ways.

• Sometimes when I am doing a teaching session I like to have looped music and video playing as people come in and settle down: to help create an informal atmosphere, act as a border between the ‘outside world’ and the session proper, and possibly to raise some questions in advance of the session. This is an example I used in a session I ran on using multimedia resources.
• An attractive way of getting a simple message across.
• To promote a new service (ac yn Saesneg)
• As an ‘attract mode’ running on a laptop when you are on a stall e.g. a recent stall I ran demonstrating e-book readers had this animation playing to pull people over.
• A fun way of introducing people with photos and names.
• For your own projects outside of work e.g. presenting a poem, holiday snapshots.

Crosswords

LRCs often like to offer quizzes as ways of summarising information or reinforcing it later. Crosswords are an easy way to do this, something some users might enjoy (though they shouldn’t be over-used, and many students will hate them – it is just an alternative way of giving information). Creating a crossword by hand is a daunting task, and thankfully unnecessary! Lots of software is available. My favourite is Eclipse Crossword, which is free and simple to use, yet powerful and fast. If you haven’t tried it before, why not incorporate a quick crossword into one of your information literacy sessions, leaflets, inductions or competitions, or use one as part of a promotion of resources and services?

Quizzes

At the end of a teaching session it is good to include some way of reviewing the content. Institutions with voting systems or interactive whiteboards can use those, but there are many other options for running a quiz. One of my favourites at the moment is ‘Multiple Choice Quiz Creator‘, which resembles ‘Who Want To Be A Millionaire?’ in format and sounds. I like the fact that you only need a laptop/PC, speakers, and (ideally) a projector. Sometimes I get a student to take part, helped by the rest of the people at the session; sometimes I get people to call out answers; other times I put the lecturer on the hotspot (depending on the vibe of the session and how relaxed people are!) It has proven to be a fun way to finish off with a laugh, with a prize of some sort for the winner (e.g. a USB memory stick or some pens). The quizzes are free to play (since the display software has no limits), but the quiz creator programme itself is only free for thirty days. You can download sample quizzes here if you want to try it out.