1. Evidence based practice: promotion and tips
on how to raise FE e-book usage figures
Elaine Mulholland
St Mary’s University College Belfast
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2. PROMOTION
PROMOTION
PROMOTION
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3. 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

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4. 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
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5. Specific e-book benefits
★Highlight text
★Tools: Copy, print, definitions etc.
★Automatic Citation

6. 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
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7. E-mail with a difference

8. Promotional
Target Sheet:
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9. Information Guides:
Logging on/getting Started
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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
STOP the
Barriers...
Make the invisible discoverable
★Students show little understanding of the
distinction between the e-resources provided
via their University or via the open web
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11. 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.
★
“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).
If you have used e-books from
your university library how did you
first find out about them?
Download /view the usage statistics for your
college e.g. email to users/staff with the most
popular titles
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

12. What next?
★ Challenges
for Libraries:
provide clear access routes to e-content
★ Discovery


of e-content:
needs to be made as simple as possible
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13. Thank you
Quic k Time™ and a
dec ompres s or
are needed to s ee this pic ture.
Elaine Mulholland
St Mary’s University College Belfast
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14. References
• JISC (2009) JISC national e-books observatory project: key findings and
recommendations (final report), Available at: http://www.jisccollections.ac.uk/Reports/e-books-observatory-project-final-report/JISCnational-e-books-observatory-other-reports/ (Accessed: 19th November
2013).
• Google Images
• Wordle