Newsletter issue 7: June 2019
Welcome to the June edition of the e-books for FE newsletter. This edition of the newsletter brings you the latest news and updates to the e-books for FE service, as well as special features and this month’s top 20 users and e-book titles.
As always, we value your feedback and suggestions – please email these to content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
Top 20 users – June 2019
Well done to all organisations who reached a spot in the top 20, and a special congratulations to the top 5. The FE and skills team thank you for your promotion and use of e-books for FE. Congratulations to The Cheadle and Marple College Network, who have reclaimed their #1 spot!
If any organisation has tips to share on how you promote e-books for FE to teaching practitioners and learners, we would love to feature you and showcase your work in promoting e-books to your students. Please get in touch if you would like to be featured at content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
| # | Organisation | User sessions |
| 1 | The Cheadle and Marple College Network | 2023 |
| 2 | Suffolk One | 1778 |
| 3 | Capital City College Group – WKCIC Group | 1340 |
| 4 | Uxbridge College | 1220 |
| 5 | Varndean College | 1172 |
| 6 | South & City College Birmingham | 1145 |
| 7 | Tower Hamlets College | 888 |
| 8 | South Thames College | 849 |
| 9 | Farnborough Sixth Form College | 795 |
| 10 | Activate Learning | 773 |
| 11 | Cardiff and Vale College | 771 |
| 12 | Richard Huish College | 758 |
| 13 | Coleg Sir Gar | 746 |
| 14 | Leyton Sixth Form College | 739 |
| 15 | Grwp Llandrillo Menai | 727 |
| 16 | Sandwell College | 690 |
| 17 | Mid-Kent College of Further and Higher Education | 671 |
| 18 | Walsall College | 662 |
| 19 | Neath Port Talbot College | 621 |
| 20 | Coleg Cambria | 597 |
Mergers: If your organisation has recently merged with another, ProQuest may not have the most current merger information and your merger may not be reflected in the usage data. Please check with ProQuest and request that they update your account to reflect the merger. Their e-book support contact address is: ebooksupport@proquest.com
Top 20 titles – June 2019
| # | Title | User sessions |
| 1 | BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 1 | 4439 |
| 2 | CACHE Level 3 Child Care and Education (Early Years Educator) | 4231 |
| 3 | BTEC Level 3 National Health and Social Care: Student Book 2 | 3235 |
| 4 | BTEC Level 3 National Business, Book 1 | 2567 |
| 5 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 1 | 2266 |
| 6 | BTEC Level 3 National Public Services Student Book 1 | 2138 |
| 7 | BTEC Level 3 National Business Student Book 1 | 1744 |
| 8 | BTEC Nationals Health and Social Care Student Book 2 : For the 2016 specifications | 1672 |
| 9 | BTEC Level 3 National Public Services Student Book 2 | 1434 |
| 10 | BTEC First Business Student Book | 1414 |
| 11 | BTEC Level 3 Business Book 2 | 1349 |
| 12 | BTEC Level 3 National Business Student Book 2 | 1347 |
| 13 | CACHE Level 2 Introduction to Early Years Education and Care | 1336 |
| 14 | BTEC Level 3 National Applied Science Student Book | 1203 |
| 15 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 1 | 1188 |
| 16 | BTEC Nationals Applied Science Student Book 1 | 1091 |
| 17 | BTEC Nationals Business Student Book 2 | 798 |
| 18 | OCR Psychology for A Level Book 1 | 790 |
| 19 | BTEC Level 3 National Travel and Tourism Student Book 1 | 752 |
| 20 | BTEC Level 3 National Construction and the Built Environment Student Book | 740 |
Page-turner of the month
This month, Civil Rights and Race Relations in the USA 1850-2009 is the page-turner of the month. This title has shown the biggest jump in usage this month, from 21 uses in May to 175 in June – that’s a huge jump in uses of 154! We love the Access to History series as they combine detailed analysis with engaging narrative, including balanced and thought-provoking debates. The series also contains exam-style questions to help students apply their learning. Click here if you haven’t checked it out yet.
e-books for FE webinars
From August, we will be launching a series of webinars on all aspects of e-books for FE. Further details on how to register abd topics covered will be announced on JiscMail in the coming weeks. If you have any requests for what you would like to see covered in these webinars, please get in touch at content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk.
Ebook Central™ downtime
ProQuest will be performing maintenance on Ebook Central and LibCentral on Saturday 20th July from 5:00pm – 8:00pm, to ensure the platform remains updated and secure. This means that both platforms will be unavailable at this time. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience that this may cause.
e-books for FE is 10 years old!
This year, e-books for FE turns 10. To celebrate the development of the service over the past decade, we would love to share some user stories of how the service has benefitted your organisation. This could be anything from helping to manage budget cuts, to increasing learner attainment, or developing the digital literacy skills of staff.
If you have a story to share about how e-books for FE has helped your organisation, we would love you hear from you and showcase your story. Please get in touch at content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk.
We will also be hosting competitions and giveaways over on the Twitter account from September, so do make sure that you are following us.
The last word
e-book sales on the rise in the UK
Figures from the UK publishing industry have shown that e-book sales increased by 5% in 2018, with a 3% increase in digital sales income to £2.6bn. Sales of physical books fell 5% for the first time since 2014, to £3.4bn.
Stephen Lotinga, CEO of the Publishers Association, said:
“UK publishing continues to satisfy the insatiable consumer appetite for books in all forms. Investment in digital is paying off, driving growth and meeting reader demand to access books at any time in the format of their choice. Audiobooks have grown phenomenally as ever-increasing numbers of people opt to enjoy books in a way that suits new technologies and keeps pace with our busy lives.
“As the industry’s growth is being driven by digital, it is also clear how unfair it is that readers who prefer digital are being taxed 20% more than their print equivalents. The government must act now to axe the unfair reading tax. Despite good top line revenues, there are some areas of real concern. School textbooks sales have taken a hit as the continuing squeeze on school budgets mean that teachers simply can’t afford the learning resources children need.”
We hope that our e-books for FE service helps struggling members of the FE sector to continue to supply high-quality learning resources despite the constant squeeze on budgets. Click here for the full story from the Publishers Association.
Support queries
Telephone: 0161 413 7520
Email: content.feandskills@jisc.ac.uk
Website: https://support.ebooksforfe.jisc.ac.uk
