Comment

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.

Comment by Elizabeth Roberts on November 3, 2011 at 5:18pm

Jennifer- We just bought one Nook to try and are probably going to get a few more. I choose that one to test out because at the time (and I think to some extent still) it is the most versitile, as far as where you can get your books from. Amazon historically hasn't been very good at working with schools which is why I steared clear of Kindles (even thought I'm a Kindle owner and love it), but I hear B&N is doing a much better job with schools. 

We are also looking into OverDrive, more because I love audiobooks. We have a number of PlayAways that are very popular, but I find them to be a terrible investment. 

Danielle, my one concern about OverDrive is the price. At first I didn't realize that what you pay them for, is just the platform, as we still have to buy all the books and audiobooks we want our patrons to have access to. Do you not think that $4,000 is a huge annual fee to pay for them just hosting what we own?  Or am I misunderstanding how it works?

Comment by Danielle Melilli on November 3, 2011 at 10:48am

Jennifer - I use OverDrive personally from the public library and I love it!  We looked into it for our school because the content is usable on many different devices (including Kindle) which wasn't the case with other services.  We didn't use it this year at the school because we wanted to be able to designate a bigger budget for it than we could at the time but I'm definitely going to push for it for next school year.  Let me know how it goes if you start using it and good luck with your new library! 

Comment by Jennifer Alevy on November 3, 2011 at 12:38am

Our school is building a new library and the temporary library is a classroom for the next few years.  We are planning on ordering more databases and eBooks, we are purchasing eReaders, laptops and iPads, does anyone have any advice, tips, suggestions, of what has worked or not worked for you in the digital world.  Have any of you used OverDrive? What do you think of that?  Where do you order your eBooks from?  I need resources for PK-12.  Thank you!

Comment by Jennifer Alevy on November 3, 2011 at 12:30am

Hi from Kathmandu, Nepal!  I am a K-12 Librarian at the Lincoln School.  I started a Facebook group, the International/American Librarians Network, please join:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/InternationalAmerican-School-Librari...

Comment by Carolyn O'Connor on November 2, 2011 at 5:13am

Glad to join this group. I am a 6-12 Teacher Librarian from Sydney.

Comment by Amy Rogers on November 1, 2011 at 11:10am

Hi from California! I am a SJSU SLIS 2010 graduate and work at NoodleTools, Inc. Wonderful to see familiar names and happy to see my friend Sarah Naumann who is volunteering at this conference. I joined School Libraries group to meet and listen to its members, some who use NoodleTools. If you work in the SF Bay Area, be sure to know about BayNet, a multi-library library association at http://baynetlibs.org.

Comment by mary ann kadish on October 31, 2011 at 9:16pm

Hi from Vermont.  I am so happy to be a part of this group to be able to share and learn what is happening in school libraries around the world.  I am a k-2 librarian.

Comment by Georgia Grammatikou on October 26, 2011 at 3:13am

Hello from Greece,

Glad to join! I have just started to build our graphic novel collection. I have some concerns about the violent content and I would appreciate some advice on how we respond to questions and comments of the school-library committee or parents about that. Also does anyone of you have any good ideas for games or other ways to promote the collection?  

“See” you at the conference!!

 

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