Though Follett’s ebooks have been around for years, I’m suddenly very enthused about the prospect of building a Follett ebook collection now that the company has released apps that let patrons read from among their 132,000 K–12 titles, online or off, on iPads and Android 3.0+ tablets.

I’ve recently converted to Destiny Library Manager (DLM) as my library’s ILS (integrated library system), so I’m doubly excited that DLM 10.0, released last December, fully integrates Follett ebook management into its classic and Destiny Quest catalog interfaces. But libraries don’t need to be DLM customers to make Follett’s ebooks available on tablets. Anyone who’s purchased even a single Follett etitle can have the company set up a FollettShelf platform for their library and begin offering ebooks through the Follett Digital Reader tablet app.

Plus—unlike some of its competitors—the Follett lending platform is free and the Follett ebooks are yours to loan forever.

About Follett ebooks

Unlike the EPUB or Kindle (AZW) formats ebook readers have become familiar with, Follett’s current ebooks are available in a proprietary format that’s much more similar to PDF. The downside? Readers can’t choose typefaces or font sizes, although they can zoom in and out on pages. This limits comfortable reading of Follett ebooks to devices with ample screen real estate. That’s possibly a reason why Follett hasn’t yet created ereader apps for smaller devices such as iPhones.

Follett’s ebooks also load slowly, so you don’t get the seamless page turns readers have come to expect. Instead, it often takes a couple of seconds for new pages to load, whether you’re reading an ebook online or one you’ve downloaded.

On the upside, Follett’s ebooks preserve all of the well-thought-out design and illustrative features of the original print publications, which makes them ideal for presenting children’s books using an IWB (interactive whiteboard) or interactive projector. Plus, they are keyword searchable; provide access to the table of contents; and support dictionary definitions, highlighting and notation, and single- or dual-page views—the advanced features seen in their more familiar ebook cousins. For better or worse, many of the distinctions between Follett’s ebooks and other formats might soon change. Committed to user-driven evolution, Follett tells me that an HTML5-based ereader and ebooks are in the works, complete with reflowable text. That’s something to look forward to.

Two licensing models

Follett basically offers ebooks in two licensing flavors: those that can be checked out by a single reader at a time and those that can be accessed by unlimited readers.

Unlimited simultaneous access ebooks

Follett sells nonfiction titles, typically ranging between $14 and $50 each, that can be used by as many kids as need them, all at once. Now that’s pretty hot. Think about it: simultaneous access ebooks could finally revive the monograph as a viable tool for library research projects. Currently, I can’t afford to offer the best nonfiction print resources to my visiting classes in suitable quantities for group study—but these simultaneous-access ebook titles make that digitally doable.

Single-use fiction titles

Follett offers uber-popular ebook titles like The Lost Hero ($7.99) and The Hunger Games ($14.99)—exactly the kind of stuff I’ve struggled to keep sufficiently available in print this past school year. I’m hoping I can purchase multiple instances of the highest-demand titles next fall and compel hungry readers to take the leap and check out those titles in ebook format. Best thing? As a librarian, I get to determine the e-loan terms. And, since ebooks check themselves back in, I’ll never again have to watch rabid readers shake and salivate while anxiously waiting for an overdue print title that might just be languishing in the bottom of a classmate’s moldy locker.

The apps

Tablet users whose school libraries are running Destiny Library Manager 10.0 and up employ a pair of apps that work in tandem to check out and read Follett’s ebooks: the Quest Mobile app and the Follett Digital Reader app. I tested them on a 10-inch widescreen Android tablet, and they worked together seamlessly. I simply browsed the demo collection Follett set up for me using Quest Mobile, checked out a title, and selected Read Now—and the Follett Digital Reader app opened it in seconds. When I chose to close the ebook, the app informed me that I had three more days left on my check-out and asked if I’d like to keep it or return it early. When I elected to keep it, I was given the option to download the ebook for offline reading, which I selected. The title downloaded in under a minute and was there and waiting for me the next time I opened the Follett Digital Reader app. The only slight downside of reading the ebook offline was that the highlight and note features were disabled. No biggie.

My take

I’m really pleased to see that Follett’s ebooks are now available through tablet apps. While not a huge fan of its relatively sluggish page-loads, I love Follett’s fast-growing selection of K–12 titles and am particularly fond of its simultaneous-access nonfiction offerings. Now, if I actually get the 20 iPads I’ve been promised next fall, I know at least two apps I’ll definitely be scrambling to load on them.

Potter fans can download all seven books in the J.K. Rowling series starting June 19, following Amazon’s deal with Pottermore to make the titles available through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

The Lending Library, offered only in the U.S. and for free to Amazon Prime members, lets readers download one title each month—with no due date. While public and school library patrons must sometimes wait for popular titles to become available, Amazon is quick to point out that under the deal “there are no limits on how many people can simultaneously borrow the same title—so readers never have to wait in line for the book they want,” reads the release.

Pottermore’s CEO Charlie Redmayne told paidContent that the deal with Amazon will actually drive sales of the books, even though readers can download titles for free. Amazon’s own data showed that readers who borrowed the first book of Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger Games” (Scholastic) series through the Kindle Lending Library ended up purchasing the second book rather than wait a month to check out the third book in the series.

“It’s a commercial deal that makes sense even with a level of cannibalization of my sales,” says Redmayne in an interview with paidContent. “But I believe it will actually drive greater sales.”

With more than 67 percent of libraries now offering ebooks—up 12 percent from two years ago—school and public libraries are now paying close attention to the shifting terrain around digital media. Many have watched publishers place caps on library ebook lending and have experienced sticker shock as the price of ebooks soar.

Amazon’s deal with Pottermore, Rowling’s online home for the world of Harry Potter, is likely to benefit the etailer with increased Kindle sales, as well as draw new annual subscriptions to its $79 Amazon Prime membership, a program that offers unlimited fast shipping. The Kindle Lending Library, with more than 145,000 titles, including “The Hunger Games” series, Michael Lewis’s The Big Short, and even the Kaplan Portable SAT study guide, is currently available only to Amazon Prime members.

Readers who borrow through the Lending Library can also save notes, highlight, and bookmark their books, which will reappear if they later purchase the title or check it out again.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have reached this agreement with Pottermore,” says Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO in a statement. “This is the kind of significant investment in the Kindle ecosystem that we’ll continue to make on behalf of Kindle owners.”

The new service helps initiate calls to Congress

The American Library Association has partnered with mobile phone marketing and outreach provider Mobile Commons to launch a new text message alert and advocacy service for librarians.

Each month, subscribers will receive an estimated 2 to 3 text message action alerts from ALA’s Office of Government Relations. The messages will give subscribers talking points on a specific, timely issue, and then offer the option of automatically making a toll-free call to the offices of their legislators.

The Mobile Commons service has proven to be a powerful advocacy tool for other organizations. In January, over 200,000 people—primarily users who had signed up for text alerts from Tumblr, Reddit, Engine Advocacy, and the Center for Rights—used the Mobile Commons platform to call their Congressional representatives in opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA).

“Sites such as Tumblr may not be Washington insiders with traditional lobbying efforts, but they were able to harness their massive reach and make their voices heard,” Jed Alpert, Chief Executive Officer of Mobile Commons, said in a release at the time.

Advocates who wish to sign up for this new, library-specific service can text the word “library” to 877877 or sign up online at districtdispatch.org/textalerts.

“This timely program will make it much easier for library advocates to stay informed and get involved in the issues facing our nation’s libraries,” Ted Wegner, ALA grassroots coordinator, said in a May 3 blog post by ALA Press Officer Jazzy Wright.

Colorado’s Marmot Library Network, Anythink Libraries, Wake County Public Libraries in North Carolina, and eiNetwork libraries in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County will all soon begin working with the DCL model. The news comes less than two months after San Mateo-based Califa Group, the largest library network in California, also announced plans to adopt DCL’s library-owned, library-managed ebook model.

Anythink is one of many systems adopting the DCL Model

And, already this year, DCL has brought several new publishers into the fold, including Dzanc Books, children’s book publishers Gareth Stevens and Crabtree Publishing, educational materials provider Infobase Learning, cooperative publishing house Book View Café, mystery publisher Poisoned Pen Press, and ebook self-publisher Book Brewer.

DCL Director Jamie LaRue said that legal framework documents that DCL developed in conjunction with Mary Minow at LibraryLaw.com have helped facilitate discussions with publishers since January.

“Putting that common-understanding legal framework in place has saved us a lot of time with publishers,” LaRue told LJ. “It always begins when the publisher says ‘well, you just want to give it away, right?’ And we say, ‘No. we attach Digital Rights Management and we restrict [circulation] to one user at a time, just as we have always done.’”

This misunderstanding about ebook circulation at libraries appears to be a common one. In February, after leading an American Library Association delegation to New York to discuss ebook lending with representatives from Penguin, Macmillan, Random House, Simon & Schuster and Perseus, ALA President Molly Raphael noted that “some publishers had the impression that libraries lend to whomever visited their respective websites, thus making collections available virtually worldwide without restriction,” according to an ALA release.

LaRue said assuring publishers that DLC uses the industry-standard Adobe Content Server DRM tools, and that the library system buys multiple copies of ebooks based on demand from their community, makes the arrangement sound more familiar to publishers.

Integrated Vu

The expansion of the DCL ebook model to Marmot, AnyThink, WCPL and eiNetwork was the result of a separate project. In 2011, DCL had begun using VuFind+, a version of the VuFind open source OPAC and library resource portal that Colorado’s Marmot system had enhanced “with modern search capabilities, faceted navigation, location-sensitive holdings displays, social web features, links to the Prospector regional union catalog, and integrated obituary discovery,” Marmot Director Jimmy Thomas wrote in the organization’s latest annual report.

DCL’s developers, naturally, had then begun enhancing VuFind+ to work more seamlessly with all of the new ebooks that they were storing on their own servers.

These enhancements by Marmot and DCL have since been merged into one new version of VuFind+, which was quickly adopted by Anythink, as well as WCPL and eiNetwork. Trying the DCL ebook model at these other libraries is a natural next step.

Thomas said that in a recent conversation he told LaRue, “what you and Douglas County are doing with ebooks is a very cool demonstration project. I’d like to prove that the concept is scalable, I’d like to see if I can make it work with 21 more libraries in the state, in a multi-type consortium setting.”

Ebooks purchased direct from publishers will supplement each library’s existing Overdrive content.

The DCL model has been quick to generate interest throughout the library community, but by virtue of its origin at DCL, Colorado is becoming the nerve center of the growing concept. After Thomas and LaRue shared information about their plans with other groups in the state, the E-voke Committee was formed to focus on “ebooks and their future in Colorado, with an eye open to other forms of E-content (audio, video, other).”

The group includes representatives from DCL, Marmot, the Colorado State Library, the Colorado Library Consortium, the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries, and Auraria Library. Their website, evoke.cvlsites.org, already includes a simple “How to Do It” page, including links to letters, forms and agreements to send to publishers, an annotated, regularly updated list of publishers that have already demonstrated willingness to sell econtent, links to server and ebook authoring support software, and documents detailing technical aspects of the system, such as a recommended server farm layout.

However this movement evolves, Thomas said that he and the rest of the group felt that libraries simply had to stay involved during the rapid growth of the ebook market.

“What’s clear is that we have to do something,” he said. “Whether we make mistakes and get bloodied doing something that’s completely crazy doesn’t matter, because moving forward in this arena is hugely important to readers.”

As LJ has reported, other libraries and organizations are currently considering DCL’s library-owned, library-managed ebook model, including Lyrasis, the State Library of North Carolina, the South Carolina State Library, the Queens Library, the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, and others. LaRue told LJ that a coalition of public libraries in Dallas, and the state librarian of Massachusetts have also recently expressed interest.

Currently, the DCL model still has library systems and multi-type library consortia dealing with publishers on a one-to-one basis. Accustomed to working with distributors, the largest publishers may be unwilling to accept this model. But, as a growing number of libraries test the concept, their aggregate buying power is going to start drawing attention.

“Clearly publishers don’t want to develop a delivery system for just one library at a time,” LaRue said. “They need to know that it’s a model that has gained some traction and has some money behind it. …Everytime somebody comes on line and says they’re interested, we say ‘here’s a list of all the publishers we’ve dealt with.’ So [those publishers] are getting a good boost of business, and they’re seeing that they’re being well respected, and that being in this market means some immediate pickup.”

To hear more about the DCL model, check out Library Journal’s upcoming webcast “eBooks: a New Paradigm in Douglas County, or a New Twist on the Past?“ on Tuesday, June 12.

The new bundle—including titles ranging from Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House to Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins—comes just as students are gearing up to leave school—a time when librarians often see kids trading books for summer activities. The convenience of an ebook may encourage students to read, or help those who lose access to reading material outside of school.

“While this offering is not limited to the summer timeframe, we know that children who have easy access to books read more and numerous studies have shown that students lose ground during the summer months,” says Stephen Gilmer, vice president, global strategic alliances for HMH by email. “Research shows that reading 4 to 5 books during the summer can prevent a decline in reading achievement scores from the spring to the fall.”

The bundles come with one device pre-loaded with 10 ebooks, which are grouped by grades K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12. Schools can choose between a new Nook, or a pre-owned, certified device. Prices start at $129 for a pre-owned Nook Simple Touch with 10 ebooks, going up to $209 for a new Nook Color device.

Titles range from Lois Lowry’s Gathering Blue for high school readers to Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji for K–2 students, Glimer says the titles are bundled on Nook Color devices as the graphics and colors in the pictures books do not “translate as well onto the non-colored devices.”

Many books come from International Reading Association (IRA) recommendations, while HMH selected others. Educational apps are not included in the current offer, but Gilmer adds that additional titles, supplementary content, and even apps will be considered in the future.

HMH would not comment on how many schools have ordered the new bundle since last week’s launch.

Interested schools can inquire about the pre-bundled Nooks at (855) 592-2997.

Ingram Content Group

The newly designed site follows Ingram’s home page redesign from January 2011, when search improvements, faster navigation, enhanced stock status, new images, and additional product information were added. The new ipage includes enhanced navigation and search options intended to make organizing and discovering new products easier for libraries and booksellers.

“With more product available than ever before, the new features and search option additions give ipage users enhanced tools to track bestsellers, view custom lists, access Ingram buyer recommendations and online catalogs, and manage and track orders,” the company wrote in a release. “The newest search features include one-click access to all search tools from the home page, and new functionality additions allow discovery of items by any term or product type across the entire ipage database including books, e-books, audiobooks and gift products.”

When the class of 2016 enters Mother of Mercy High School this fall, each of the 135 freshmen will receive a new iPad. That’s part of the school’s mission: to help students access the technology best suited to their needs, according to Linda Behen, the school’s library media specialist.

At Mercy, an all-girls Catholic school in Cincinnati, OH, they call this “tech-agility,” says Behen (pictured). She helped support a spring 2012 pilot in which 20 current freshmen received iPads. But there are no plans for the school to go one-to-one across the board.

All Mercy students are encouraged to bring in their own devices, whether they be tablets or smartphones, to facilitate classroom learning. “Students can bring in any device they own and get on our network. With the iPad, this will be more like a three-to-one program,” says Behen.

Principal Diane Laake sees the iPads as offering freshmen a consistent platform for curating information as well as creating their own work. “Our philosophy has been more about looking at tech as a means to an end,” she says.

Schools nationwide are considering tablet adoption, not just to keep pace with the latest in hardware, but also to enable access to etextbooks, educational apps, and other digital content specifically designed for the tablet platform. Then there’s deciding which device to buy. Given reported bugs in the new iPad, Laake is considering going with the iPad 2. She plans to make a decision this month, along with the flashcard, note-taking, and scheduling apps the school will preload onto each device.

Mercy will pay for the iPads, but will begin charging parents a $100 program fee per student to help cover some of the costs. While students will be expected to maintain the iPads—even over the summer—the library will provide a Genius Bar, akin to the tech-support kiosks found in Apple Stores. There the school’s Tech Doctors, a small group of 8 to 10 honor students, will offer troubleshooting help under Behen’s supervision.

Putting her media specialist skills into high gear, Behen views the iPad program as a real opportunity. For starters, she’s creating pathfinders to help students more easily find links to pre-vetted research sites. She’s also identifying textbooks that link to digital content, which Behen plans to share with teachers. The librarian also intends to instruct teachers and students in multimedia, using Animoto, Knovio, and other apps to enliven assignments.

Imagining the kind of presentations she hopes to see coming out of Mercy classrooms, Behen says, “We’re trying to help them kick it up a notch.”

Behen’s Twitter friends have also lent a hand, sharing ideas about new apps and sites to use with students. Behen sees this all as part of an expanding role—reimagining the library as not just as a place for information and research, but where students and teachers can find new ways to work with and create content using iPads—and any future device that comes along.

“It keeps me looking for newer and better ways for students to pool their knowledge for doing projects together,” she says. “Students aren’t just reading and assimilating, they’re pulling information for their own use, and curating that information. It just broadens our scope as librarians, which is great, because it makes libraries more valuable in this age.”

Peek down the hallways of your own school, or in the cafeteria or library around final exam time, and you’ll probably see students quizzing one another over the content they anticipate encountering on the test. Thanks to the Web, they don’t have to be in the same room to work together.

Let’s take a look at some platforms that help students connect for online study sessions.

Google+ opened up to teenagers late last year. There are some good tools built into the social platform that students can use for group study. An important element of Google+ that you and your students should get to know is Google+ Circles. These are groups of contacts that you create in your Google+ account. When you share an item in your account, you can specify who can or can’t see what you’ve just posted. Google+ Hangouts allow you to video chat with the people in your Circles. While in a Hangout, you can share your screen, share and collaborate on Google Docs, and use a collaborative whiteboard. While still relatively new—it’s only nine months old—Google+ has the potential to be a great place for students to study.

Think Binder enables students to organize online study groups in which they can share files and links, chat, and collaborate on a whiteboard. Think Binder could be used as a place for all students in a course to share their notes. By sharing notes and other materials, a student who’s absent from class can catch up by viewing the materials created by others that day. Users can create and join multiple Think Binder groups.

Open Study is a collaborative study tool that enables students to create online study groups. At its core, it’s a message board to help those seeking help in answering difficult questions. In addition, Open Study offers students the option to create or join online study groups, subscribe to other users’ updates, and record their notes online. There’s also a “public access” option for students who don’t want to register. Students using this feature can view public study materials but cannot post questions of their own. Students can register for Open Study using an email address or connect to it with their Facebook account.

Study Blue is a free service for creating, studying, and sharing flashcards online and on mobile devices. When students create flashcards in Study Blue, they can view up to 30 related flashcards from the community. For example, if I were to create a flashcard about geometry, I could access 30 other flashcards on the subject. I could then review all related flashcards, including my own. In addition, I could import any or all of those community flashcards to my own set.

Study Hall is a relatively new service for sharing information and studying with friends. The basic idea of the site is to enable teachers and students to upload content to a common place for access via an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, as well as some Android-powered devices. Students can search for, view, and comment on course materials using Study Hall’s mobile apps. When using the iPad app, students can communicate in real time about the content that they’re viewing. The other mobile apps are currently limited to viewing only.

Together we’re smarter, and the same goes for our students, too. These tools can enable our students to connect, share notes, and work through difficult problems together. The next time your students bemoan the difficulty of getting together to study, you’ll have multiple places to send them online.

For more on this story, see full coverage here in Library Journal.

Google just launched its new Search Education hub. The site offers access to leveled lesson plans for K-12, search activities from AGoogleADay, and an archive of previous webinars.

The search literacy lessons are aligned to three sets of standards: AASL, ISTE NETS-S and the Common Core State Standards and are organized by level of search expertise–beginner, intermediate, advanced.

The site notes that the lessons are designed to support a slow-and-steady, integrated approach to search literacy. They include plenty of detail so that multiple teachers across a school or district can teach different elements as fit into their curricula, even if they start with different levels of experience with Search.

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