The FE and skills sector is dynamic and rapidly changing with students and the challenges they face increasing. Jisc’s e-books for FE service provides access to a collection of curriculum-focused e-books, free at the point of use. In this session we’ll focus on collaboration and interaction with the community and how it has shaped the service; exploring how we’re taking those lessons forward to identify future content mapped against future needs.

1. EBooks for FE surgery
A service adapting to a rapidly changing landscape

2. Challenges
»Individual cohorts and colleges have different behaviours
»Varying ability and backgrounds
»Learners have a lot of support needs
»Delivery of library services to HE learners in an FE setting can
be complex
»Digital literacy - often little IT support
»Area reviews - government to bring “greater efficiency” to
the sector

3. Priorities: affordable content
»Online resources are expensive and Learning Resource Managers
have to justify the cost
»Colleges do not have the staffing resource nor the budget to
support digital content to gain value
»Any negotiated pricing has to be realistic and sustainable
»Alternative business/licensing models need to be explored
»The current Jisc banding model is too simplistic

4. Priorities: relevant content
»Tag resources to curriculum and examining boards
»Current
»Mobile friendly
»Supports online teaching
»GCSE English and Maths
»Communication and promotion of the Jisc offering

5. How is Jisc supporting FE and Skills?
»Provides access to a collection of curriculum focused ebooks free at
the point of use
»Offers subscription agreements e.g. Primal pictures and Brickwork
and free resources e.g.Vogue archive
»Maintains, supplements and refreshes collections
»Collaborates with FE and Skills colleagues regarding title selection
to focus on supporting the curriculum

6. How is Jisc supporting FE and Skills?
»Offers functionality through the ProQuest ebrary platform
»Enables learners to access content at any time, from any location
»Saves users time and money

7. Areas Jisc could do better…
»Communication and promotion of the Jisc offering
»More learning software and resources
»Training material and publicity
»Ideas to promote for e.g. ebooks for FE service
»Instructional videos to embed intoVle’s
»Workshops, students and staff need to understand the value
of resources
»Involve Learning resource centre staff

8. jisc.ac.uk
Questions?
Ebooks for FE service
Catherine John
FE and Skills licensing manager
catherine.john@jisc.ac.uk
02/03/2016 Ebooks for FE surgery 8