Infographic: eReading on the Rise

From Adam Sockel at OverDrive

Readers of all ages are discovering the power and convenience of eBooks. The results of a recent Pew Research Center study show that eBook reading is on the rise across every age group. At the same time, people are reading fewer physical books. More than half the population still reads physical books, but the percentage of eBook readers has increased dramatically. Nearly a quarter of all readers aged 16 and up reported reading an eBook in 2012, up 16 percent from 2011.

This growth in eBook reading coincides with the growing popularity of eReaders, tablets, and other devices. One-third of those polled reported owning at least one eReader or tablet device.

As more readers become aware of libraries’ digital collections, the popularity of eBook lending continues to soar. Readers checked out more than 70 million eBooks and audiobooks from OverDrive-powered libraries in 2012, more than double 2011’s totals. Libraries throughout the OverDrive network are seeing increased digital circulation, more page views, and more engagement with eBooks, audiobooks, music and video.

To show how engagement at OverDrive-powered digital libraries mirrors the continued growth of the eBook industry, we’ve created this infographic. Feel free to download, print, and share with your patrons however you see fit.

School in the Clouds

The winner of the first $1 million TED Prize for education innovation is (no, not Sal Khan) Sugata Mitra, for his plan this year to start  the “School in the Cloud”.
He has released a toolkit for parents and teachers who want to create what he calls self-organized learning environments, or SOLES, for kids ages 8-12, which you can find here.
He’s concept is simple. I wonder if there is anyone in the Library that will take him up his challenge.  Read more..

 

eBook updates and must reads from ALAMW Conference

Blog post from No Shelf required, provides a brief overview of eBook vendors as well as a few must read reports.  First, the ALA Digital Content & Libraries Working Group publication, Ebook Business Models:  A Scorecard for Public Libraries.   Second, The Pew Internet Library Services in the Digital Age report. Finally, the Scholastic Kids and Family Reading Report (4th Edition).  The latter reports provide excellent data to help understand user needs in our digital age. Read more..

Online Book Club

Just sharing this eMail about Online Book Clubs.

I’m doing a FutureofEducation.com show on Tuesday, March 5th, with +Ben Rimes on his Book Club 106 (the current book is Switch), and running virtual book clubs is something I’ve wanted to do myself, having talked with +Audrey Watters and +Gary Stager and many others over the past year about how we might do this.

So, the bonus of 1) my adoration of Wikispaces, 2) my current consulting for and similar adoration of Mightybell, and 3) my previous employment with Elluminate/Blackboard Collaborate, is that I can bring all three together as part of a Book Club 2.0 project.

First, I’ve set up a wiki at BookClub20.com where you can list or find virtual book clubs for students, teachers, and anyone else in education. You can also share links to articles, books, videos, or anything else related to virtual book clubs there (you’ll have to request membership in the wiki, but that’s just to avoid the inevitable spammers). I just started it today, so hopefully we can make this a great resource.

Second, I’ve created a page for myself on the wiki called “Ed Classics” and have listed the books that I really want to have conversations about. It turns out that Mightybell is a brilliant platform for holding these virtual book club discussions (really, and not just because I do work for them!). I’ve set two of these Mightybell “spaces” up for now: one on Seymour Papert’s Mindstorms and one on John Dewey’s Experience and Education. You can see by clicking through on the links that Mightybell let’s me create a conversation post for each chapter or topic/theme, add resource links, and generally allow for what I think are going to be not only well-organized conversations, but long-term repositories of those conversations for anyone wanting to drill down on the books at any later time. Both spaces are open for business, so those of you who have already read the books, or have been looking for an excuse to, are welcome to dive right in and get us started!

Third, I’ve scheduled live FutureofEducation.com events in Blackboard Collaborate for the Papert and Dewey book club participants to come together and talk. The dates are March 14th and April 11th, and they are on the FutureofEducation.com site calendar listing on the front page. My goal is to schedule one book a month, so stay tuned here or at Book Club 2.0 or FutureofEducation.com for updates on these and, hopefully, the other clubs being run by our community.

If you’re interested in using Mightybell to set up a virtual book club, go to Running a Book Club in Mightybell. To learn more about Mightybell for education, go here. If you’re interested in using Blackboard Collaborate to hold a live meeting or meetings for your book club, contact me at steve@hargadon.com.

See you online, and happy reading!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
http://www.stevehargadon.com

More Kids Reading Using eReaders

From a blog post on No Shelf Required

Scholastic recently released a new study on kid’s reading in the digital age.  The study found that kids reading of ebooks has nearly doubled since 2010. Full details are on the Scholastic site or you can download the full report with appendices here.

Below are some highlights of the study from the Scholastic site:

Kids, Families, and eBooks

• The percent of children who have read an ebook has almost doubled since 2010 (25% vs. 46%).
• Among children who have read an ebook, one in five says he/she is reading more books for fun; boys are more likely to agree than girls (26% vs. 16%).
• Half of children age 9–17 say they would read more books for fun if they had greater access to ebooks – a 50% increase since 2010.
• Seventy-five percent of kids who have read an ebook are reading ebooks at home, with about one in four reading them at school.
• Seventy-two percent of parents are interested in having their child read ebooks.
• Eighty percent of kids who read ebooks still read books for fun primarily in print.
• Kids say that ebooks are better than print books when they do not want their friends to know what they are reading, and when they are out and about/traveling; print is better for sharing with friends and reading at bedtime.
• Fifty-eight percent of kids age 9–17 say they will always want to read books printed on paper even though there are ebooks available – a slight decrease from 2010 (66%).

Kids’ Reading Frequency and Attitudes toward Reading

• Among girls, there has been a decline since 2010 in frequent readers (42% vs. 36%), reading enjoyment (71% vs. 66%), and the importance of reading books for fun (62% vs. 56%).
• Compared to 2010, boys are more likely to think reading books for fun is important (39% in 2010 vs. 47% in 2012), but they still lag girls on this measure (47% for boys in 2012 vs. 56% for girls in 2012).
• Frequency of reading books for fun is significantly lower for kids age 12–17 than for children age 6–11; frequency of reading books for school is also lower for kids age 12–17 than for kids age 6–11.

Parents’ Role in Kids’ Reading Practice

• About half of parents (49%) feel their children do not spend enough time reading books for fun, while the vast majority of parents think their children spend too much time playing video games or visiting social networking sites.
• The percentage of parents who say their child does not spend enough time reading for fun has increased since 2010 across all age groups of children (36% in 2010 to 49% in 2012).
• Having reading role-model parents or a large book collection at home has more of an impact on kids’ reading frequency than does household income.
• Building reading into kids’ schedules and regularly bringing additional books into the home for children positively impact kids’ reading frequency.

Summer Reading

• Ninety-nine percent of parents think children their child’s age should read over the summer.
• Eighty-six percent of children say they read a book (or books) over the summer.
• On average, kids say they read 12 books over the summer.

Marketing Tip From Freegal

How do YOU increase patron usage? Each month we are featuring successful marketing campaigns from current Freegal subscribers. This month’s tip is from Andrea Legg, the Extension & Technical Services Manager at Tuscarawas County Public Library System in New Philadelphia, OH. According to Andrea, “We have been trying to market Freegal in unique ways during library events. The library recently hosted a Baby Steps 101 open house that showcased resources for new parents, including tips on making your own baby food, burp cloths, and baby slings. We set up a laptop with songs from various Rockabye Baby albums available on Freegal and distributed flyers that promoted the service to new parents. We did the same thing at a recent Christmas open house at the library, except we loaded the laptop with Freegal Christmas tracks and modified the flyers to promote Freegal’s extensive Christmas collection of available downloads.” “Our stats are up 100+ downloads this month from last month.”  Andrea Legg, the Extension & Technical Services Manager at Tuscarawas County Public Library System in New Philadelphia, OH.  Check out their website at http://www.tusclibrary.org/ Please share your Freegal marketing success story with us. Contact Stephanie Hall: stephanieh@libraryideas.com

 

Patron Profiles

Patron Profiles is the first, nationally trended survey of library users that tracks their experiences using library content and services, and puts this data in the context of broader consumer behavior. Awesome!

It tracks both a core set of questions and develops data on specific topics. All topics are about the use of digital content and services, including e-Books. Approximately 2000 individual respondents who are library users are tracked over time to identify trends.

How will this help Librarians?

• Patron Profiles will help tell the library story, particularly around the e-Book revolution. It’s no secret that many libraries are struggling to respond to the avalanche of demand around e-Book content.
• Libraries are required more and more to use sophisticated data with their boards and local politicians to state their case.  Because Patron Profiles tracks patterns over time – while providing libraries the ability to drill down to their own regional or population density levels – libraries can provide demonstrable evidence of our impact.
• Libraries doing strategic planning cannot do so without using social media or surveys. It is a best practice. This publication can be instrumental in meeting that need.
• Patron Profiles is another weapon in your toolkit to make you an effective spokesperson for your library. It gives you hard national data to compare your library with national trends. It takes you beyond just the anecdotal or output numbers.

I have uploaded all the Patron Profiles we have received to date to Voyager under Public Services for all staff to view. There are currently 5 profiles with the latest one just published.  I think you will find these very interesting reading.

Libraries Thriving Collaborative Space – an interview with Laura Warren of Credo Reference

spolanka Jun 28, 2012 8:47 AM – Show original item

Libraries Thriving is a Collaborative Space for e-Resource Innovation and Information Literacy Promotion. Thinking and doing.  I had the chance to speak with Laura Warren, Solutions Associate for Credo Reference (a supporter of Libraries Thriving) about the program.  Our interview is now available on the NSR interviews page.

Here is more information about Libraries Thriving:

With low usage and shrinking budgets, libraries are challenged to justify resource investments now more than ever.  At the same time, information users are ill prepared to navigate the amount and quality of content on the web.  This creates a tremendous opportunity for libraries to show that they are well equipped to help users navigate information resources and for users to benefit from this guidance.

Libraries Thriving is an online collaborative community designed to tackle this opportunity.  Librarians, faculty, and researchers are sharing ideas and working together on this site to further common goals of increasing innovative use of e-resources.

Goals of Libraries Thriving:

• Help libraries realize their possibility for impact and to address challenges
• Develop case studies of success that can be replicated
• Resolve key technical issues that limit progress

Problems that Libraries Thriving addresses:

• Increase effective use of e-resources
• Increase visibility and discoverability of libraries on the open web
• Help alleviate users’ information overload
• Create seamless access between resources
• Promote information and digital literacy

E-Content

ALA has just published a report on eBooks.  One of the articles is Navigating the eBook Revolution. It makes for interesting reading!

Reader Advisory

How would you respond to a reader who asked if Guy Gavriel Kay had a new book coming out. Each of the responses below isn’t just about the service we provide. It is about the type of relationship we want to build with a reader.

Which of these responses to the Kay question are you most likely to use? Which do you use most often? Which ones do you think would create a positive relationship with the readers in your community?

When asked about Kay’s next book, you might:

• Check resources and provide the answer. which ones would you use?
• Ask about other books the reader has read and enjoyed.
• Suggest other authors/titles the reader might enjoy based on what you have learned about them as a reader. Use Novelist to find read-a-likes.
• Show the resources you used — or other resources that might be of interest to the reader.
• Urge the reader to sign up for our library’s Science fiction/Fantasy newsletter or other book oriented newsletters.
• Encourage the readers to rate titles that they have read and write reviews for them in the catalog (Ratings are also available in the eMedia Catalog) or share on social media such as FaceBook or Twitter.
• Ask the reader if he would like to come to the library’s next Fantasy book club meeting.

Of course, not every  library will be able to provide all of these responses, but any of them is an opportunity to build stronger, deeper relationships with our readers. We do not want to be just a place that library users come to pick up the books they put on hold, but, through their interactions with us, we want to enrich their reading and their lives.

How to keep libraries thriving: Make personal service a priority

Here’s an interesting article entitled “Personal Service is Priority” by Whitman County Librarian, Kristie Kirpatrick, that gave a glowing synopsis of the Whitman County Library’s efforts to give “fantastic personal… Read More…