Category Archives: News

IASL Conference focuses on role of school libraries in preparing pupils for the future

Posted on by
Reply

From the UNESCO site comes the following report from the IASL 2009 conference:

11-09-2009 (Padua)
iasl
© IASL
UNESCO participated in the 38th Annual Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), which concluded last week in Padua, Italy. This year’s theme, School Libraries in the Picture: Preparing Pupils and Students for the Future, highlighted the increasingly important role of school libraries to equip students in the 21st century with the abilities to use information effectively and develop critical thinking and life-long learning skills that are essential to responsible citizenship.
 
While the significant contributions of school libraries to student learning have been demonstrated over the years, in the rapidly changing and competitive environment of the 21st century, the role of school libraries has shifted from one of technical work to intermediation, from conservation to innovation, and from reactive user-trainer modes to proactive teacher-trainer modes.
IASL is a professional association that provides an international forum for those interested in promoting effective school library programmes as viable instruments in the educational process.

This was the main theme of this year’s Conference of the International Association of School Librarianship that gathered more than 300 school librarians, teachers, library advisers, educational administrators, students and others who are responsible for library and information services in educational institutes from around the world.

School librarians will therefore be increasingly contributing to UNESCO’s mandate for building knowledge societies. In particular school libraries will play a key role as catalysts for the introduction of media and information literacy policies in schools by engaging both students and teachers to acquire a combination of skills, competencies, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours.

The topics discussed at the Conference are closely connected with UNESCO’s work on a teacher-training curriculum for media and information literacy to be introduced worldwide. The curriculum aims to integrate media education and information literacy in the initial training of teachers at secondary school levels, and will be designed according to the needs of each country.

The future of libraries, with or without books

Posted on by
1

CNN recently published this article on the future of libraries. Although focussing mainly on public and academic libraries, there are implications for us schoolies too.

The future of libraries, with or without books

  • Story Highlights
  • As books go digital, libraries are reevaluating their roles
  • Some say libraries will soon act more like community centers
  • Most say the physical book will stay in libraries, but with less importance
  • Some libraries use futuristic tools to attract new patrons

updated 8:14 a.m. EDT, Fri September 4, 2009

 By John D. Sutter
CNN

  (CNN) — The stereotypical library is dying — and it’s taking its shushing ladies, dank smell and endless shelves of books with it.

 

Libraries are trying to imagine their futures with or without books.

Libraries are trying to imagine their futures with or without books.

Libraries are trying to imagine their futures with or without books.

 

Books are being pushed aside for digital learning centers and gaming areas. “Loud rooms” that promote public discourse and group projects are taking over the bookish quiet. Hipster staffers who blog, chat on Twitter and care little about the Dewey Decimal System are edging out old-school librarians.

And that’s just the surface. By some accounts, the library system is undergoing a complete transformation that goes far beyond these image changes.

Authors, publishing houses, librarians and Web sites continue to fight Google’s efforts to digitize the world’s books and create the world’s largest library online. Meanwhile, many real-world libraries are moving forward with the assumption that physical books will play a much-diminished or potentially nonexistent role in their efforts to educate the public.

Some books will still be around, they say, although many of those will be digital. But the goal of the library remains the same: To be a free place where people can access and share information.

“The library building isn’t a warehouse for books,” said Helene Blowers, digital strategy director at the Columbus [Ohio] Metropolitan Library. “It’s a community gathering center.”

Think of the change as a Library 2.0 revolution — a mirror of what’s happened on the Web.

Library 2.0

People used to go online for the same information they could get from newspapers. Now they go to Facebook, Digg and Twitter to discuss their lives and the news of the day. Forward-looking librarians are trying to create that same conversational loop in public libraries. The one-way flow of information from book to patron isn’t good enough anymore.

Don’t Miss

“We can pick up on all of these trends that are going on,” said Toby Greenwalt, virtual services coordinator at the Skokie Public Library in suburban Chicago.

Greenwalt, for example, set up a Twitter feed and text-messaging services for his library. He monitors local conversations on online social networks and uses that information as inspiration for group discussions or programs at the real-world library.

Other libraries are trying new things, too.

The Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, in North Carolina, has a multimedia space where kids shoot videos and record music. It also runs a blog dedicated to gaming and hosts video game tournaments regularly.

Kelly Czarnecki, a technology education librarian at ImaginOn, a kids’ branch of that library, said kids learn by telling their own stories.

“Our motto here is to bring stories to life, so by having the movie and music studio we can really tap into a different angle of what stories are,” she said. “They’re not just in books. They’re something kids can create themselves.”

Czarnecki believes that doesn’t have to come at the expense of book-based learning.

The Aarhus Public Library in Aarhus, Denmark, takes things a step further.

The library features an “info column,” where people share digital news stories; an “info galleria” where patrons explore digital maps layered with factoids; a digital floor that lets people immerse themselves in information; and RFID-tagged book phones that kids point at specific books to hear a story.

“The library has never been just about books,” said Rolf Hapel, director of the city’s public libraries.

Community Centers

Jason M. Schultz, director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the University of California at Berkeley Law School, said libraries always have served two roles in society: They’re places where people can get free information; and they’re community centers for civic debate.

As books become more available online, that community-center role will become increasingly important for libraries, he said.

“It depends on whether we prioritize it as a funding matter, but I think there always will be a space for that even if all the resources are digital,” he said.

Some libraries are trying to gain an edge by focusing on the “deeply local” material — the stuff that only they have, said Blowers, the librarian in Ohio.

“How do we help add that value to a format like the Internet, which is expansively global?” she said. “So we look at what do we have here that we could help people gain access to by digitizing it.”

That material can be used to start community discussions, she said.

Librarians

This shift means the role of the librarian — and their look — is also changing.

In a world where information is more social and more online, librarians are becoming debate moderators, givers of technical support and community outreach coordinators.

They’re also no longer bound to the physical library, said Greenwalt, of the library in Skokie, Illinois. Librarians must venture into the digital space, where their potential patrons exist, to show them why the physical library is still necessary, he said.

A rise in a young, library-chic subculture on blogs and on Twitter is putting a new face on this changing role, said Linda C. Smith, president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

Some wear tattoos, piercings and dress like they belong on the streets of Brooklyn instead of behind bookshelves. They’re also trying on new titles. Instead of librarians, they’re “information specialists” or “information scientists.”

Libraries like the “Urban Media Space,” which is set to open in 2014 in Aarhus, Denmark, are taking on new names, too. And all of that experimentation is a good thing, Smith said, because it may help people separate the book-bound past of libraries from the liberated future.

“It’s a source of tension in the field because, for some people, trying to re-brand can be perceived as a rejection of the [library] tradition and the values,” she said. “But for other people it’s a redefinition and an expansion.”

Funding woes

In the United States, libraries are largely funded by local governments, many of which have been hit hard by the recession.

That means some libraries may not get to take part in technological advances. It also could mean some of the nation’s 16,000 public libraries could be shut down or privatized. Schultz, of the Berkeley Law School, said it would be easy for public officials to point to the growing amount of free information online as further reason to cut public funding for libraries.

Use of U.S. public libraries is up over the past decade, though, and many people in the information and libraries field say they’re excited about opportunities the future brings.

“I came into libraries and it wasn’t about books,” said Peter Norman, a graduate student in library and information science at Simmons College in Boston who says he’s most interested in music and technology. “Sure I love to read. I read all the time. I read physical books. But I don’t have the strange emotional attachment that some people possess.”

“If the library is going to turn into a place without books, I’m going to evolve with that too,” he said.

Beyond the happy ending

Posted on by
3

An article worth reading that appears in today’s Melbourne Age as well as the UK’s Guardian.

Beyond the happy ending

JACKIE KEMP

September 7, 2009

One day recently I heard an unearthly wailing coming from my 11-year-old son’s room. It was like no sound I’d ever heard from him before. He doesn’t normally cry at television or films but, curled up alone in his bed reading, when the fantasy character he identified with met a grim end, vanquished by the forces of darkness, he found it absolutely devastating.

Having perhaps antiquated expectations of children’s fiction, I flicked through the book, sure he must have misinterpreted the ending. I was wrong.

A friend complained to her daughter’s school after finding her 10-year-old in shuddering hysterics over a book about the Holocaust. “It was so graphic about the horror of the train journey to the death camps: people were dying and being shoved out of the train. It ended with the main character going into the gas chambers.

“My daughter didn’t know anything about the Second World War or the Holocaust. She was completely unprepared — she was given it because it was at the reading level she was at. The teacher hadn’t read it.”

Author Anne Fine recently mused at the Edinburgh Book Festival about the effects of the bleakness of some of today’s children’s books on vulnerable youngsters. This provoked a rash of sneering from the literati, and painful — and clearly unjust — comparisons between the former children’s laureate and Enid Blyton. But Fine obviously touched on something of interest to many when she asked whether realism “may have gone too far in children’s literature”.

Alison Waller, senior lecturer at the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature (NCRCL) at Roehampton University in south-west London, says: “As a children’s writer, Anne Fine has a very strong sense of a pastoral obligation to her readers. You can see that in her work. But many writers for children and young people don’t feel like that. They believe they should just write what they want and leave it up to the reader to interpret.”

Patrick Ness, author of The Knife of Never Letting Go, a violent, dystopian fantasy, believes that fiction should reflect reality and that “good doesn’t always triumph”.

He says: “When I was young, there was still the compulsion for books for the young to teach an ethical and moral lesson. The bully always got his comeuppance. I knew that was shit. That wasn’t what happened in my school.

“I think that if you tell the truth about the bullies getting away with it and the violence and the tough realities of life, then when you tell the truth about love and optimism, they will take it more seriously.”

He feels that, despite the violence and torture contained in the text, a book like his could still be useful in the classroom. “A class of teenagers can discuss when the character chooses right and when he chooses wrong. There is a time when he shouldn’t use the knife and he does, and there is a time when you are rooting for him to use it but he doesn’t, and the class can talk about how it can be right to feel that.”

Teacher Ann Young insists there is a place for dark stories in the classroom. “I just read a book called Nightjohn, by Gary Paulsen, about slavery, to a class of boys who said they weren’t interested in reading. They are also learning about the reality of slavery and it really held their attention.

“There are some books the children read that do make our school librarian roll her eyes: Before I Die is apparently about a teenager who does lots of things like have sex with various people because she knows she is about to die. But teenagers do seem to be drawn to the dark side. I think it is just part of exploring what is inside them.”

Sheila Rodger, head of English at an Edinburgh school, says: “I am amazed by the nitty-gritty reality of some of the books the children choose to read. I think perhaps there is an absence of metaphor. They can be a bit obvious and so the imagination isn’t stimulated.”

Children’s writer and teacher Bernard Beckett says using modern literature is a key tool for getting children to understand and explore the world around them. “I am in absolute awe of the moral power of literature. The stories we construe are crucial to our expectation of the world.”

His recent book, Genesis, uses a child in a future, utopian society taking an exam about the past to explore the theory of evolution. Beckett says: “The trouble with the ethical debate around children’s literature is that it tends to be hijacked by a very select group of social conservatives whose morality I find abhorrent; a morality that, for instance, has persecuted homosexuals.”

But he does have concerns about books for children that portray a depressing world view. “I am an irredeemable optimist. One, I think it is a damn fine way to live your life. And, most of the time, drivers do stay on their own side of the road. Most people don’t kill you.

“Two, more energy comes from optimism. That is a stronger energy than the one that comes from saying everything is terrible and we are all going to die.”

Kim Reynolds, director of the NCRCL, says there is a fashion for dark fantasy books, which seem to appeal to teenagers. “Since the ’50s, when the Catcher in the Rye came out, we have had teenage fiction under the nought to 16 umbrella, and what teenagers can cope with is different from what younger children can,” she points out.

“Nihilism seems to appeal to some teenagers. It seems to talk to the inner turmoil they are experiencing and in some ways it corresponds to their emotional stage.”

She voices some reservations about books like Ness’s. “It has a really hopeless and brutal ending. You aren’t really left with any hope at all. It is quite nihilistic. And you aren’t prepared for it because it is a children’s book and it doesn’t signal that it isn’t going to have a happy ending.”

Of another fantasy book, Tender Morselsby Margo Lanagan, Reynolds says: “I really question whether that should be regarded as a book for children. It doesn’t offer very much in the way of hope at all.”

Perhaps parents and teachers can no longer afford to assume that everything in the garden is lovely — or that everything in the children’s department of the bookshop or library is. Like the restricted section in the Hogwarts library, some of these books may bite. GUARDIAN

Indigenous Literacy Day

Posted on by
Reply

Wednesday 2 September is Indigenous Literacy Day.

Indigenous Literacy Project website homepage
Indigenous Literacy Project website homepage

From the Indigenous Literacy Project website comes the following information:

On Wednesday September 2 2009 all Australians are invited to participate in the third Indigenous Literacy Day. ILD aims to help raise urgently needed funds to address the literacy crisis in remote Indigenous communities. 

What will happen on ILD

  • Indigenous Literacy Day events will be held across Australia.
  • Participating publishers will donate 5% or more of their takings from titles invoiced on September 2 2009.
  • Participating booksellers will donate 5% or more of their takings from September 2 2009.   Booksellers can also donate to ILP.
  • Bookshops and schools will initiate different awareness raising events in their local communities to support Indigenous Literacy Day.
  • Schools can participate in The Great Book Swap, or other fundraising activities.
  • Businesses are invited to pause at work and read to support Indigenous literacy and make a gold coin donation.   Businesses can also participate in The Great Book Swap.
  •  Individuals can help by attending activities in their local area; buying a book at a participating bookshop on September 2 2009, getting involved in their local Great Book Swap or organising their own private fundraising literary lunches and morning teas. 

The website also has ideas for schools and although it may be too late to organise much for 2009, there are some simple ideas that can be implemented. Perhaps this is the time to plan to make ILD part of your Literacy and Numeracy celebrations in 2010? 

 

VCE faces axe for national education certificate

Posted on by
Reply

An interesting article in today’s Herald Sun:

Laurie Nowell and Stephen Drill, August 30, 2009 12:00am

 VICTORIA’S VCE is set to be replaced by a national education certificate as schools move to an Australia-wide curriculum for years 11 and 12.

A paper created by the newly formed Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority and obtained by the Sunday Herald Sun reveals the transition to new national subjects and standards.

It reveals all state and federal education ministers have now made a commitment to introduce a kindergarten-to-year 12 national curriculum. Until now, a national curriculum has been planned only up to year 10.

Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike yesterday said: “It’s inevitable that we move towards a national certificate.”

The plan will be discussed at a meeting of education ministers in Brisbane on September 28.

The move will spark controversy. Many teachers, educators and business groups support the scheme, saying it will help universities compare like with like.

But others say the move to what is expected to be called the “Australian Certificate of Education” will create a “homogenised” education system in which Victorian students are no longer taught about events such as John Batman’s settlement of Melbourne.

And they are outraged that Australian History is to be dumped as a separate subject.

Another concern is that, during the transition period, students studying state-based year 10 courses will not be prepared for year 11 national curriculum courses.

ACARA chairman Prof Barry McGaw said details of the year 11 and 12 national curriculum in the four core areas were being drafted and were due to come on stream in 2012.

He said a fully fledged “Australian School Certificate” could come after that.

“We have looked at the best curricula around the world. We believe we will be able to deliver a world-class system,” he said.

ACARA has been created as an education super-body.

It is a statutory authority of the Federal Parliament with powers to oversee curricula, assessment and the recently announced reporting on schools.

Under the plan, initially the year 11 and 12 national curriculum will apply to English, Maths, Science and History, but plans are in progress to extend it to other subjects.

Maths teacher and educational consultant Russell Boyle said the senior national curriculum was “a step in the right direction”.

“If students all around the country are to compete on an equal basis, then they should not only be doing the same curriculum, but be assessed in the same way,” he said.

But critics say the national curriculum will “dumb down” some subjects.

“You will have English students being able to avoid any kind of study of literature at all,” said former English teacher and business education consultant Angus Creasy.

Victorian Education Minister Bronwyn Pike confirmed the ACARA paper was a first step towards a national certificate. 

SLAV Awards

Posted on by
Reply

Thanks to Mary Manning for this text:

SLAV News

Each year, the School Library Association of Victoria celebrates International School Libraries Day by recognising the excellence and innovation of Victorian teacher-librarians, school library teams, research and school leaders.
Applications for the following awards close on Friday 18 September 2009:

The John Ward Award – a professional development grant of $2000. The recipient/s must demonstrate an outstanding contribution to learning and teaching at their school and raise the profile of the profession through their role as teacher-librarian. The award is sponsored by the State Library of Victoria.

The SLAV Research Fellowship – supports research projects that involve school libraries in learning and teaching.
The fellowship will take the form of a $1000 grant to provide practical support to a teacher-librarian implementing a local research.

The SLAV Innovator’s Grant – In conjunction with Pledger Consulting, SLAV is particularly pleased to sponsor an award that goes to an innovative library or school team. Teams may self nominate or be nominated by SLAV branches. The grant will consist of a package of SLAV professional development and/or publications to the value of $800 plus $200 worth of Pledger Consulting products.

The SLAV School Leader Award is made to a school leader who demonstrates outstanding support of the school library and the work of the school library team. Nominated by a SLAV member.

Go to http://www.slav.schools.net.au/awards.html for further details and application forms.

ISLM Bookmark Project update

Posted on by
2

Rick Mulholland, the International School Library Month Bookmark coordinator, is seeking more participants for the project:

Once again the ISLM committee is organizing a bookmark exchange project. Currently, we have a shortage of participants from outside of North America.

The details of this projects is as follows:

The ISLM Bookmark Project involves matched schools making homemade bookmarks (any style, shape etc. – be creative) that reflects International School Library Month’s theme of:

School Libraries: The Big Picture

The bookmarks must be mailed to your matched school in October 2009.

If you would like to become involved in this project, you will need to send the following information to the bookmark coordinator:

– your school’s name

– your school’s location (city , state/province/ country)

– the grade/age level of the students to be involved

– number of students involved (this is very important to ensure that you are matched to a school of similar size)

– the contact information (name and email address – include an alternative one where you can be reached during any school holidays)

Every few weeks until early September 2009, a new list of schools will be sent to the participating schools to choose a match.

For more information or to add your name to the list of participating
schools, contact:

Rick Mulholland

Bookmark coordinator

conri@shaw.ca

Rick’s message was kindly forwarded by Helen Boelens, who explains how she is implementing the project:

I am doing my best to encourage school in Europe to take part.  It is a nice project which gets children to look outside their own national borders. 

A good, fun project that gives students a broader view of other countries and cultures.

Making the right to read a reality for kids

Posted on by
1

This article appeared in Saturday’s Age newspaper and is so inspiring. What a wonderful job Suzy Wilson has done in bringing books to indigenous children.

Making the right to read a reality for kids

August 22, 2009

Bookseller Suzy Wilson couldn’t believe the prevalence of indigenous illiteracy, so she did something about it, writes Clare Kermond.

IT WAS just over 12 years ago that Suzy Wilson’s life took a sharp right turn. Days away from the start of a new semester, the then lecturer in early childhood education had a nasty run-in with her boss. She resigned on the spot, joking to her husband that night that she might finally follow her dream of opening a bookshop.

Luckily for many people, including Ms Wilson, that dream became a reality. She opened Brisbane’s Riverbend Bookshop 11 years ago and adores the life of a bookseller. She is passionate about the value of books and reading, and for the past six years has used her connections in the book world to promote another cause close to her heart, indigenous literacy.

When Ms Wilson, 49, first heard some of the statistics for reading and writing in indigenous communities she could not believe that such a grave problem was receiving so little attention.

”I found the figures completely unbelievable, and the fact that I didn’t know about them. It was like finding out about the stolen generation – you couldn’t believe that was going on while you were at school.”

At first Ms Wilson set herself a modest target, planning to organise a raffle at the shop, maybe donating a shelf of books. But with her background in early childhood education she saw an opportunity to do some good for two causes, indigenous literacy and children’s reading in general.

Ms Wilson approached the seven schools in her local area and pitched the idea of a reading challenge, with each child paying five dollars to meet the target of reading 10 books; the children would get a certificate and the money raised would pay for books and literacy support for remote indigenous communities.

Schools leapt at the idea. Ms Wilson says teachers especially liked the theory that children were helping other children learn to read. For the first challenge, in 2004, 112 schools signed up and more than $25,000 was raised.

”The message we always give to schools is, ‘Can you imagine a world without books and reading?’ A lot of these [indigenous] kids don’t even see a book until they get to school and then they start learning to read in what is often their third language. Think about how hard that would be. My children have done Italian all through primary school and they couldn’t read a book in it.”

Ms Wilson’s idea has grown into the Indigenous Literacy Project (ILP), a national scheme backed by the publishing and bookselling industry around Australia. The fund-raising ideas have broadened too, partly to avoid doubling up with the Premier’s Reading Challenge, which most states now have in all schools. Each year on Indigenous Literacy Day, September 2, publishers and booksellers that sign up donate 5 per cent of their takings to the project. Schools fund-raise in a variety of ways.

For the first time, there will also be a benefit concert on Tuesday at the Melbourne Town Hall, organised by one of the project’s ambassadors, Felix Riebl of the Cat Empire band, and with some big musical names including Paul Kelly and Archie Roach.

Ms Wilson says some people question how the literacy problems in indigenous communities could have become so serious but even minimal research finds some obvious answers. ”There’s health issues, there’s English as a third language, there’s no access to books, there’s also things like consistency,” Ms Wilson said. ”One principal told us that five of the teachers were new in the last three weeks. How do you address literacy if the teachers are turning over that quickly? There’s also truancy and just getting kids to school over long distances. At the first school I ever visited the library consisted of a few boxes on the floor of a classroom and the school had been built on the floodplain and it flooded four times a year, so they lost their books.”

Tara June Winch, an indigenous author and another ambassador for the ILP, has run several workshops with children in indigenous communities in Arnhem Land. She is clearly moved when she talks about meeting young children who have never handled a book.

”It’s so important to build up that idea of books at home for the little ones. My daughter is 3½ and she’s always had books around. One thing I noticed going out to Arnhem is watching the children opening the book, turning the pages, it’s the first step in learning to read.” June Winch is organising board-and-cloth books for babies as part of her work with the ILP this year.

Ms Wilson is one of a committee of six volunteers who run the ILP with some paid administrative help. Although the project has raised more than $500,000 since it started five years ago she says some days the challenges can seem overwhelming. ”When we’re all getting a little bit tired and burnt out we go on a field trip to the Katherine. You see these kids opening a box of books and it’s like five Christmases have arrived all at once. They’re the very real joys.”

Songs for Stories, the benefit concert for the Indigenous Literacy Project is at the Melbourne Town Hall at 7.30pm on Tuesday.

 

http://indigenousliteracyproject.org.au

http://www.mwf.com.au

Congratulations to Suzy and everyone involved in this wonderful project.

2009 Inkys longlist

Posted on by
2

Here are the books that have made the 2009 Inkys longlist. Information from Insideadog website:

The 2009 Inkys Longlist

 

Broken Glass by Adrian Stirling 

Something happened when I was fifteen, something that made me invisible to everyone in Broken Glass.

 

 

I believe in Chloe and chocolate.

I believe the best part is always before.

I believe that most girls are shifty and most guys are dumb.

 

The boy with all the dreadlocks had two line of business: cars and the patio trade.

Ollie was in aisle five of Galaxy Art Supply stocking oil paints when Clio Ford emerged from the manager’s office.

Everyone thinks it was because of the snow.

The SS Loongana steamed slowly up the Derwent River towards it’s berth at Salamanca Warf…

I tend to worry, I know I do, but only because I think there is lots of things to worry about.

It was fun at first, playing house. I made all my own meals. Crackers and cheese, three times a day.

I am a reading girl, with a pale face, and glasses.

The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle.

Chelsea Dean opened the front door to her parents’ substantial riverside residence and was assulted by booming reception-centre music.

I had a dream
I put my hands
inside my chest
and held my heart

Ray was bigger but José was boss. They were fourteen and fifteen, on their own and on the run.

Tuesday the fourteenth of February began badly for Frankie Parsons.

I was born with water on the brain. Okay, so that’s not exactly true.

She looks good for a corpse.

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim’s warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress.

I let the tips of both by swords dig into the sandy arena floor. It was the wrong move, but the dragging pain in my gut was pulling me into a crouch.

It’s six-thirty in the morning. I stumble out of bed and splash cold water in my flushed face.

A sound brought Col out of a deep sleep. Something was happening out in the corridor.

Students to dump textbooks for e-books

Posted on by
2

Very interesting article in The Sunday Age today about e-books and school libraries:

Students to dump textbooks for e-books

Carmel Egan

August 16, 2009

HEAVY book-filled school bags could soon be a thing of the past, with the e-book industry claiming most of students’ textbooks will be contained in light hand-held portable devices within three years.

The internet-linked reading devices will store hundreds of e-textbooks bought online or borrowed from school libraries.

”E-textbooks will be mainstream within three years,” the executive director of DA Direct, Australia’s largest distributor of portable reading devices and e-books, Richard Siegersma, predicted.

Mr Siegersma said digital technology would lead to the costs of e-textbooks falling in a year to 18 months.

”There will be just-in-time and customised delivery to flexible, full-colour screens; textbooks with audio and video components; touch screens for handwriting and margin note-taking and text highlighting,” he said.

Speaking at a conference of school librarians in Melbourne last week, Mr Siegersma told them to prepare for the transition from print to e-readers, e-books and e-textbooks.

While book lovers in the US can already access thousands of digital titles via Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, users of the new technology complain they can be slow to upload, screens are black and white, page-turning is slow and titles are limited to certain publishers.

Mr Siegersma said technological breakthroughs, such as flexible, full-colour screens along with improved digital management and delivery systems, will revolutionise the way students access information.

Pressure from educational institutions, public libraries and government will also force print book publishers to address pent-up demand for more titles to be made available online.

The acting head of cultural studies at Macquarie University and author of The Book Is Dead, Long Live the Book, Sherman Young, agrees.

”The world is at the e-book tipping point and librarians will be the vanguard of the introduction of e-textbooks,” Dr Young told the conference, organised by Curriculum Corporation and the School Library Association of Victoria.

”Book culture is still confused with print culture and it is really only this year people have started to get e-books.”

In 2005, Macquarie University library bought 16,651 books in print form, rising to 16,764 in 2007.

By comparison, the number of e-books bought rose from 896 in 2005 to 68,719 in 2007.

However, many obstacles stand between e-textbooks and classroom domination, according to Australian Copyright Council lawyer Sneha Balakrishnan.

”Some schools are already in the process of negotiating licences tailored to their needs,” Ms Balakrishnan said.

”But there are still lots of issues to be worked through.”

Several Melbourne secondary schools have trialled e-books with students and staff in the past year with mixed results.

At the selective boys’ secondary Melbourne High School, students were not persuaded by the new technology.

While enjoying e-book mobility and easy access to multiple titles, they complained of slow data uploading, slow page-turning and too few titles available free.

Wesley College’s head of library and information services, Wilma Kurvink, trialled 18 e-readers with staff and students.

”Digital rights management restrictions at the point of sale have been developed for individuals on personal computers with credit cards, but publishers have not yet envisaged libraries as part of the mode or thought of building a lending system,” Ms Kurvink said.

”School libraries have used very traditional acquisition models but that will not work with this new technology and we need to start forming collaborative groups to work with publishers in partnership.”