The Solution
The Solution: from bespoke elibraries to a National School eBook Library
‘Libraries should reflect the needs and interests of their readers not the commercial objectives of the book industry. For too long schools have been encouraged to buy generic boxes of newly published books. We need to give agency to our child readers and select libraries based on what they want to read.’
Bridget Martindale, ELFS.
Pilot School Elibraries
Our interim solution to the book problem is to provide bespoke ebook libraries to individual schools. By working with a school to understand its pupils’ needs and wants, and using the search and discovery engine TheBookSeekers, we provide an extra resource of ebooks to supplement the school’s physical library.
‘We believe that a small elibrary, where each book has been chosen with at least one child in mind is much more likely to engage children in reading than a larger but generic library of books. We are confident that our pilot elibraries will prove this’.
Bridget Martindale, ELFS.
Why eBooks for our pilot schools?
Ebook libraries offer schools and their pupils benefits over physical books. Firstly, ebooks on digital whiteboards allow pupils to follow the words and pictures in a story as the teacher reads to the class. Secondly, ebooks are available whenever and wherever you are: an elibrary is always accessible – be the child at school, at home, at granny’s house, on holiday or anywhere in between. Thirdly, elibraries are low maintenance: ebooks are automatically logged in reading records and returned, ready for the next reader.
Why a National School Ebook Library?
Of course, the best way to ensure children have access to books they want to read is to give them a library with the entire backlist of children’s books and the means to easily find books that reflect their interests and needs.
A central children’s book library, holding the entirety of children’s literature in one place and accessible to all is more efficient than multiple small libraries: by minimising the number of books sitting unread on shelves it can minimise the cost per read. This only works, though, if the central library is one of ebooks as ebooks are not tied to a location – they are accessible from anywhere. We therefore propose the establishment of a National eBook Library for Schools as the most efficient means of providing maximum choice for minimum cost.
With a haystack of books, children will need help in finding the needle. Digital search and discovery backed by a central team of online super librarians could be made available to every child and teacher in all schools across the country. This could ensure every child knows which book they would love to read next.
“We must embrace technology in our pursuit of improving access to books. Across human history, the first true literacy revolution was the invention of scrolls and paper… The second innovation was the printing press, bringing books and literacy to the people… Many of us have lived through a similarly important revolution in the development of e-books and audiobooks, reinventing the way we read.”
Alexander Stafford MP, Hansard, Children’s Access to Books, June 2023