ASLA XXIII Biennial Conference - Dr Jill Abell - Print books are bouncing back with the new bookshop experiences whilst school libraries are using a host of diverse e-commerce models, e-platforms and devices in their efforts to offer digital texts to support new curriculum. The common goal is to adopt e-books to encourage reading, or create e-texts as a replacement for costly and heavy printed texts, to secure backlisted fiction, and to maintain curriculum-focussed non-fiction and multiple copies with manageable digital rights and licensing for class use. In this workshop, participants will examine the “wicked problems” and change focus to find solutions.

1. E-books, e-texts and e-platforms: a wicked
problem for school libraries (K-12)
Dr Jill Abell
ASLA XXIII
Hobart,
September
2013

2. This session addresses AITSL
Australian Professional Standards for Teachers - 2.6.3
Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Model high-level teaching knowledge and skills and work with
colleagues to use current ICT to improve their teaching
practice and make content relevant and meaningful.

3. The bookshop experience: Shakespeare and Company in the
shade of the Notre Dame, Paris Left Bank
Photograph taken by Daryl Patni, courtesy of Joe Aston, writer for The Australian [est 1919]

4. A wicked problem?

5. Why wicked?
• Complex problems are often called ‘’wicked ‘’problems
• Problems that are highly resistant to resolution and have many
interdependencies
• Attempts to address them can lead to unforseen consequences
• Realm of social problems cannot be solved in a traditionally tame
or linear analysis
• Requires big picture thinking and trans-disciplinary notions
• Rittel and Webber at the UC, 1972
• Collaborative strategies are best to get stakeholder involvement

6. DRM – digital rights management
Do you want to buy your e-books outright, or lease them?
Can students download e-content onto their personal devices?
Or a class? Or read offline?
• Penguin has resumed doing business with Overdrive – 17000 titles to US
libraries only
• Simon & Schuster launches a pilot to make available digital editions of
its most popular preK-12 books for schools for one year’s use by one
student at a time, “so long as it is being used by one borrower at a
time.”

7. Wait! ….more examples…..
HarperCollins rents the license to an e-book for 26 uses, after which
the license expires
Hachette sells e-books to libraries at three times the print price for
the first year — and one and a half times print price thereafter.
Random House has raised prices for some of its e-books by 300
percent releasing slowly old favourites or backlist - Dr Seuss
available as e-books on Sept 24 – planning 41 titles by November

8. DRM locking into e-platforms…
• Follett launches Follett Enlight reportedly 200,00 titles for schools via
apps for Google Play and iOS – perpetual licensing model
• Amazon announces new bundle print and e-books called Kindle
MatchBook and acquire any Amazon purchases retrospectively
• Kobo’s new tablet pre-loaded with Google Play store
• Baker & Taylor features more than 500,000 ebook and audiobook
titles – works with the Blio e-reader app
• Barnes and Noble’s 3M+ e-books are supported solely on Nook
• Gale Virtual Reference Library are unlimited simultaneous use
purchases, and libraries own the e-books indefinitely.

9. The burden of digital rights management
• The music industry has moved on and removed DRM, after being a
casuality of Napster
• If you want to move your music collection from one platform to
another, eg from iOS to Android, you save, drag and drop from your
iTunes to SD card.
• Imagine trying to do that to your e-book collection – dragging Kindle
books to your new NOOK?

10. What are the issues for Australian
schools?
Australian wholesalers/distributors are not able to rival the
international e-book distributors and Google Books
* Not many reasonable backlists available
* Publishers (Britannica, Gale, etc) do not have much local content?
• e-book platforms, aggregators and vendors – varying cross-over
models and functions (Follett, Overdrive, Wheelers, Gale)
When will the publishing industry offer a DRM-free format for e-books?

11. Case studies – your solutions?

12. SCHOOLS: solutions for the wicked problems?
Students transition from single use e-reader devices to tablets?
Avoid buying a Kindle, Kobo or a NOOK and being locked into licensed
content and conditions, partly due to e-book formats and partly to
publishers’ DRM
Schools focus on tablets to get reasonable licenses for multiple
copies of e-texts?
Be ‘’device agnostic ‘’ and libraries concentrate on making sense
of larger purchasing volumes with the e-platforms – harvesting
more whole school budgets

13. Restrictive
for
schools….
time
to be
device-
agnostic
http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/e-book-formats-and-devices-infographic/

14. PUBLISHERS: solution for the wicked problems?
The “next generation” e-texts with the interactive features
require more advanced e-platform than an e-reader.
Publishers develop content that works on tablets, or new
busines models eg Spotify or Shazam for e-books?
Publishers provide e-commerce models and e-platforms targeting
digital rights and licensing for class use?
The open e-pub is handled by every publisher except Amazon

15. Do you
know
if your
students
are
enjoying
using
eTexts?
Source: visual.ly

16. What can digitization do for the textbook?
Leveraging these new tools to enhance learning resources and provide
universal access.
Multi-modal texts for concept based learning, presented in learning
pathways
Modalities – different ways to learn: videos and multimedia
simulation, interactive exploration modelling, quizzes and question
banks, maps of related concepts, peer learning, photo galleries, labs,
flash cards, lesson plans, annotations and highlights.

17. E-pubs, e-texts and open education resources
– a new storm is brewing!
Interactive apps and e-texts on smart
devices [tablets, etc.,] in the classroom -
are they more engaging than the e-books
from the library’s catalogue?
the library’s catalogue?

18. Who are the most disruptive
at your school? Library?

19. Apple website
& iBooks App

21. Fluency Unit Planner
http://fluency21.com/

22. State Educational Technology Directors Association www.setda.org
1. Complete the shift from print-centric textbook
adoption practices to digital resources within five
years beginning with the next major textbook
adoption cycle.
2. Develop a vision and roadmap for completing the shift
3. Ensure a vibrant marketplace for digital and open
content

23. E-pubs & apps generated from pdf texts and
multimedia files
New platforms for “on the go” learning, incorporating tutorials,
quizzes, flashcards, videos, labs, games and activity zones
E-book and companion apps published on platforms covering all in-
market phones, tablets, and computers.
Captured into courses using unique platforms and frameworks like
iTunesU, EdX, Udacity, Coursera, MOOCs
http://www.ck12.org/student/ example for STEM

24. www.thedigitalshift.com

33. http://oedb.org/open/subjects/education/

34. Digital library services: e-pubs, e-books, e-texts and
audiobooks?
• Do our resource acquisition practices in school libraries reflect state of
the art in the school’s digital content creation and curriculum delivery?
• What is the role of the school library staff in maintaining 24/7 access to the
quality apps to support the Australian Curriculum?
• Are these interactive apps and e-texts on smart devices in the classroom
more engaging than the e-books in the library’s catalogue?
• If so, what creative solutions can we find to harvest resources to provide
accessible e-platforms with easily managed digital rights and licensing for
class use?

35. Assess your school’s preparedness to measure effective
change and/or innovation in your library’s digital content
strategy, epub, e-book, e-text acquisition and ICT plans?
1.leadership interventions including the use of data-driven
diagnostic feedback or research
2. Predictions of teachers’ curriculum concerns
3.teacher and student engagement
4. Acknowledging the students’ voices
Your task: Strategic change management
plan for e-pubs, apps and open
education resources

36. Digital content development and digitisation strategic plan
for next three years
Guidelines for library processes with digital resources
• Storage
• Accessibility issues
• Processing MARC and metadata
• Preservation and weeding
• Promotion and marketing
SCHOOL LIBRARIES: solutions for the
wicked problems?

37. Acknowledgements, sources or more sites to explore:
Apple iTunesU K-12
Coursera.org
Digital shift www.thedigitalshift.com
Infographics http://ebookfriendly.com/tag/infographics/
Infographics – visual.ly or easel.ly
Open Education Database http://oedb.org/open/subjects/education/
School Library Journal