Week Four: Not the Final Chapter!

Welcome to the eLending Kit or eLK for short!

Your library doesn’t have to have made a decision about buying eBooks to have a role in helping your local community with this technology.  As we have seen, there is quite a lot of free content out there and individual NSW residents can borrow eBooks from the State Library with their Readers Card.    One Sydney library ran courses for the public explaining eBooks and inviting clients to bring their own devices before they made a decision to purchase eBooks.  These programs were very popular with their local community.   This week we look at ways in which libraries promote eReading in their communities.  We also have one last opportunity to play with the devices before eLK moves on!

Activity 1: Hands on

You can continue playing with the individual devices.  Hopefully by now you will have looked in some detail at one or more devices.  For this activity set some time aside (maybe an hour) to work in small groups or pairs.  Each person “adopts” a device.  Imagine the others are new to this device.  Explain its features to the others.  Or imagine you are “selling” the device to the others.  Why would you buy this device? 

Activity 2: A little light viewing

There is lots of support material on the internet to assist consumers to navigate their way through new and emerging technologies.  You may be able to use these in your engagement with your clients.

One local source is the Telstra Everyone Connected program here.

 There are short videos (less than five minutes long) on eReaders and eReading here  and on mobiles and tablets here.  

Here is a case study of how one NSW library brought eReading to their community.  They didn’t do it alone, but worked in partnership with local young people who acted as tutors for their clients.

You can view the video here. 

Finally you may want to explore ways in which NSW public libraries offer training to their communities on eReading here.  

A range of NSW public libraries have generously shared their notes, handouts and powerpoints. They are on the eLending Portal here.

 

Activity 3: Keep the conversation going

How will you keep on talking and learning about eLending and eReading at your library?

If you don’t already, you could add eReading and related technology updates as a standing agenda item at your meetings.  Is this topic part of staff learning and development plans?

You can start small e.g. talk to your Book Club and/or Seniors groups about eReading.

One way of keeping the conversation going is to set up feeds to the NSW.net blog: http://www.nswnet.net/blog and the eLending Portal blog: http://www.nswnet.net/elending-portal/blog.

You can also subscribe to the eLending Portal Newsletter:

http://www.nswnet.net/elending-portal

And follow us on twitter too: @NSWnet.

We hope you have enjoyed eLK. 

Don't forget to complete an evaluation here. 

If you have any comments or suggestions regarding the program, please contact Kathleen Alexander, NSW.net: kathleen.alexander@sl.nsw.gov.au

Thank you for your participation and we wish you well on your eLending travels!