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In this webinar, expert in eBooks Meredith Wemhoff discusses ways to engage and support learners with special needs using eBooks and audio. Using the case-study of an independent all-boys school located in Surrey, the school provides special needs students an opportunity to succeed and thrive. Many arrive to the 80-year-old institution with low self-confidence, often due to struggles they faced in traditional educational institutions caused by learning and language difficulties. This means providing a collection that meets the individual learning needs of the school's 470 students, who range in age from 8-18. ​​​​​​​ During this eye-opening webinar, Meredith will share the story of selecting, launching and promoting a digital library service that helps address learning challenges. Attendees will come away with best practices for bringing ebooks and audiobooks to their school and real-life examples of these practices in action. Don't miss out, register today!

Glenn Kantz, a librarian in a Swiss Boarding school wrote an article on "patron drive acquisitions" that I find boh fascinating and really something that libraries should consider. In the past, it has often been librarian driven. But if the libraries have books that patrons want, will the libraries be more populated? Now that ebooks and overdrive solutions are coming, doesn't it make sense to take a patron driven model? Should people be able to "vote up" the next acquisition? Fascinating thoughts and I look forward to reading more on this.

The original webinar took place on 28th October 2020 and explored how eBooks can augment your existing library and reading book schemes, both at primary and secondary schools. Experts Hannah Monson and Meredith Wemhoff talk to Martin Burrett about how eBooks can help in the current pandemic situation and beyond. They also tackle viewers' questions. Have a question? Get in touch via one for the methods below. Submit your details here for the chance to win a 10 inch Samsung Tab. One winner will be chosen at random on 30th November 2020.

Some rules have changed as I've been reading up on having Kindles at schools. (Back in February I read a spate of posts mentioning that Amazon said that having 6 kindles share one account was just for "personal use" and that libraries can't do it.) But Amazon does have information on Whispercast which lets you handle distributing books. It is a "free self-service online tool" and I'm thinking that it is something we need to be using. It looks like you can also distribute many of the free ebooks onto Kindles. 

You can find a variety of books online, in many languages and reading levels (mostly Elementary). The titles are searchable just as you would in a library catalogue, and you can enlarge the text.

International Children's Library includes many ebooks that you can download onto your Kindle. The books are organized by grade level and there are over 10,000 of them. (A big hat tip to Peter Fogarty who shared this resource over at the TES forum, a place where I find a ton of great things for my classroom.)

Classic literature for download as free eBooks

Listening to a Webinar about this book. Need to read.

There continues to be a problem that not all books in the Amazon kindle store have real page numbers. If students are expected to cite sources and not allowed to use location numbers, then Amazon can expect the pushback seen on this forum post. Meanwhile, a helpful person on the forum has noted how you can know what to read on the Kindle if your professor or teacher says "read page 80-92" - you can dive into the table of contents on the website and save a copy. This is the only solution. It is time for Amazon to get their act together and have all Kindle ebooks display page numbers if there is a printed copy of the book. If there is not a printed copy of the book, there needs to be a consistent reference point or "page" that all can use for sourcing and citing content. "1. Look up the book in the in the Amazon Kindle store (where you purchased it). 2. Click on the book where it says "Look Inside." You want to look at the table of contents, which will have the pages numbers for each chapter. 3. It defaults to the "kindle edition," which does not have the page numbers in the table of contents. However, there is a tab above that says "Print Book." Click on that. 4. Once you're on the "Print Book" display, it shows the page numbers in the TOC. By doing the above, I was able to determine that "the first 26 pages" = Chapters 1 & 2. I used Evernote to take a screen capture of the entire TOC, which I'll refer back to."

Free, downloadable, eBooks - great source to use to allow students to choose their own reading.

Barnes and Noble's response to the Kindle: The Nook. It uses the Android operating system (Google's mobile OS) and can install 3rd party Android Apps. It also has an MP3 player but does not have built in text to speech (so no UDL here) - If you use the free wifi at Barnes and Noble you can read any ebook for free - otherwise it is something that you need to buy.

"Getting IT Right" is for folks who have no clue about Information Technology and its ability in bettering our day-to-day lives. It introduces novices into the world of IT and helps in knowing what's in store by becoming computer savvy. This book serves as a primer and makes the reader aware of what IT can do and how much can be accomplished by harnessing its power. Learning IT is not that tough as it is being made out. Mind you, without IT skills you are nowhere in today's workplace. This book would help you form an idea what IT is all about and prepare you to pick up the rudiments of IT.

Searchable by categories and age levels.

Free Books, what more could you want?

Very cool free site for kids - free online books