Digital books are coming to school libraries

Thanks to Biblius Project, the loan of digital books has started its gradual deployment through the network of school libraries. We spoke with the project manager, Nancy Lusignan.

“The need for a digital book loan service has long been present in the school network. However, the platform already developed for public library lending did not suit the specific needs of schools (simultaneous lending of the same book to several students, projection on TNI, remote access to the school library, etc.). Over the past year and a half, a new platform has been designed to respond to the school context, ”says Ms. Lusignan.

Coming from a consortium of Quebec public libraries, the organization Bibliopresto.ca already offered the loan of digital books in municipal libraries.

Educational exploitation

The deployment of Biblius first takes the form of a pilot project. During the school year, 35 schools will experiment with projects linked to the educational use of digital books accessible in a centralized collection. All projects are presented on a collaborative site. 

“We aim to use the expertise of school libraries in carrying out educational projects. A variety of clientele was chosen to reflect a large number of situations: regular classes, French as a second language class, students with visual impairments, behavioral problems, particular pathways, etc. », Explains Ms. Lusignan.

Collection of digital books

In addition to this pilot project, the team is preparing the deployment of the platform in school service centers so that they can make local purchases and build a digital school library.

The deployment plan has just been unveiled. The connection and access to purchases will be done in three waves. All school service centers employing at least one school librarian and which have a Mozaïk-Portal deployment level (since the service will pass through it) adequate to allow connection to Biblius are concerned. They will be contacted directly by the project team. Full details of the plan, including dates, are available on this site.

Ms. Lusignan wishes to underline the collaboration of all partners in the book sector in Quebec for the realization of this project, including the National Association of Book Publishers, Les librairies Indépendes du Québec and De Marque. Several meetings and discussions took place in order to invent a whole new model of distribution of Quebec books in a school context. “The model will be constantly evolving based on the observations we make in the coming months. "