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Comment by Jennifer Alevy on December 14, 2011 at 10:08pm

Has anyone done a comparison between Follett, Mackin and B&T for their ebook shelves? I am thinking I need to do that soon and compare them with GVL and OverDrive.  Still not sure which way to go for Fic and NF digital/audio content.

I  will compare price, content, supported devices, single/multiple checkouts, website ease of use, appealing to end-user, compatibility with catalog, hosting fees, grade levels...any other suggestions?

Jennifer

Comment by Christine Sitter on December 14, 2011 at 1:25pm

http://libra.en.softonic.com/

Here's the link I found it on.  Thanks, Elizabeth.

Comment by Elizabeth Roberts on December 14, 2011 at 6:39am

Christine,  What is Libra? Can you give us the website? I tried to google it but without the address, I'm just getting a bunch of sites about astrology. Thanks!

Comment by Christine Sitter on December 13, 2011 at 1:43pm

Hello...has anyone used Libra?  I'm looking to import an excel spreadsheet (videos used by teachers) to this nice FREE site.  

Comment by Erin Dalbec on November 4, 2011 at 9:00pm

I am in a public high school (9-12, 900 students).  We also have Gale Virtual Reference Library for reference books.  We have 200+ of those ebooks that can be accessed from any computer.  They are both full text/and or PDF versions of the books and we pay $50/hosting fee (we put down $9000 in 3 installments a couple of years ago).  I also have 12 Nooks and we have about 60 Nook books mostly fiction (popular and books that are read in ELA classes.)  I have been considering Follett's shelf because our elementary schools are going that route but I don't like the way they look on the screen, students can copy/paste from them (which we need them to do if they are using Noodletools) and Follett's books are more expensive than B&N.

Comment by Lauren MacDonald Cassatt on November 4, 2011 at 12:31pm

I am in a public high school (9-12, 560 students).  We have Gale Virtual Reference Library for reference ebooks.  There is a hosting fee each year, depending on how many books you have (we have 50 currently -- approx. $50-100 a year).  We are also looking at Follett e-shelf for high-interest fiction and non-fiction.  No hosting fee, a good selection of children's and YA titles, fairly good pricing.  You set up an account for each student (we are going to use our PowerSchool logins) and kids check the books out, download them to a device or computer, and the books are automatically checked back in after a certain period (just like Overdrive, which we have through our consortium).  We are hoping to test-drive it in the next month or two.

Comment by Jennifer Alevy on November 3, 2011 at 11:34pm

Thank you Elizabeth and Danille, I appreciate your input.  The thing that makes me hesitant about OverDrive is that if you decide not to get anymore, you loose all of your digital/audio collection.  It is a long-term investment, I keep going back and forth.  I am also hesitant because they can't show me the range of reference books for MS/HS from publishers like Gale/Facts on File/etc.  I am not sure if it is better to by those direct and pay the hosting fees...any thoughts on that??? Moving from a mostly print to a 50-50 or more digital collection brings up all sorts of issues that I had not anticipated when I  started. Are any of you from a K-12 setting?  I am also still going back and forth between B&N and Amazon, with the new Kindle.  I have been following Buffy Hamilton and her adventures into the B&N vs Kindle world...anyone use Amazon successfully?  I am thinking with Kindle we can buy 60 of them but not sure the best way to manage them. Not sure we need the new Fire...choices and decisions ;-D

Comment by Danielle Melilli on November 3, 2011 at 6:58pm

Unfortunately, yes - you are paying $4000 annually so unless they change their pricing structure you're locked in to spending your $2000 collection credit on the ebooks or eaudiobooks every year.  This platform is the School Download Library. 

The Audiobook Classroom platform gives you unlimited access to 1001 titles.  It's a little over half the cost ($2500).  I don't know what books are in that collection, but it might be a good solution if you're looking for digital audiobooks.  Here's the link if you want to check it out: http://overdrive.com/Solutions/Schools/K12/ABC/

(I feel like a commercial, but really, I just did so much research last spring that I thought I'd share.) :)

Comment by Elizabeth Roberts on November 3, 2011 at 6:26pm

Danielle, Do you know if you have to still pay $4000 every year, so you are basically forced to buy $2000 a year worth of ebooks?  I would hope that once you have the service and some books they don't have that specific amount you have to spend every year. And do you have any idea if that can be applied to audiobooks.  Like I said, I'm actually more interested in OverDrive for it's audiobooks but I haven't had time to explore enough to know if they have a good selection or if the collection credit applies.

Comment by Danielle Melilli on November 3, 2011 at 6:04pm

Elizabeth - you're right is is very expensive, though it is actually $2000 for the hosting etc. while the other $2000 is earmarked to purchase the ebooks and eaudiobooks.  (They call it a "collection credit.") Considering they host a custom-branded website, train the staff, and a list of other things that I don't fully understand but sound quite tech-y, it's not terrible. :)

Other services might be cheaper but the ones I've seen are either device specific or can only be used on a computer.  We have a lot of students who have their own (or access to their parents') electronic readers so we need something that was compatible with the Nook, Kindle, and iPad. If anyone has come across something comprable, I'd love to look into it.

Overdrive had an audiobook platform for schools as well - I don't know if you looked into that since you love audiobooks.  It provides unlimited access to all the titles so multiple students could be listening to the same thing at the same time.  I thought that was pretty cool. :) I believe it is Audiobook Classroom.

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