Spotlight on Technology
Save Money Using Multi-User EBooks
How the Steelville School District Saved Money and Increased Access Using EBooks
An independent interview conducted with Dee Dee Everett, Steelville High School Media Specialist
Steelville School District is a small rural district located in
Central Missouri. The district serves approximately 1,000
students, of whom 65% are on free or reduced price lunches.
What prompted you to add ebooks to your libraries?
According to Dee Dee Everett,
Steelville High School Media Spe-
cialist, the district viewed ebooks
as an excellent way to make the
most efficient use of their budget,
while enabling them to reach stu-
dents attracted to technology.
What challenges were you facing
with regard to adding ebooks to
your libraries?
Everett says the ebook model of
one reader/one book was not fea-
sible for their schools. “We wanted
an online collection that kids can
access from home, from anywhere in the school, and from
their mobile and wireless devices,” she says. “Accessibility
was of prime importance for use in adopting ebooks.”
What led you to select eSebco for your ebooks supplier?
Everett says they selected eSebco primarily because of ac-
cessibility. “With eSebco, teachers could pull up ebooks in
their classrooms and all the students could access the same
book at the same time. It was easy to download titles into our
catalog so kids could see what we have and quickly identify
ebooks. We use Alexandria as our ILS and importing our eS-
ebco ebooks into our catalog was the simplest import into
an automation program I’ve ever experienced. I received
an email, downloaded, and the titles were there, ready for
students to use anytime or anywhere, on all laptops and our
library Kindles.”
Everett highlights the following benefits of eSebco:
• Every title is available for simultaneous use.
This was a
huge factor in selecting eSebco, Everett says. It means that
every student can be in the same book on the same page at
the same time.
With eSebco we get more books
into more hands. We never have
to purchase duplicate copies of a
title which allows us to purchase
more titles to meet curriculum
needs. This is a win-win for all
teachers and students.
“
”
Dee Dee Everett
Steelville High School Media Specialist
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• Size of inventory.
Everett says the titles that are avail-
able support the curriculum and are the types of books kids
want—even graphic novels.
• Efficient use of time and money.
“Once we purchase a
title it’s ours for life. We can keep
it for a year or forever. If we have
a special project we can ‘rent’
titles for a year and don’t have
to make a long-term investment.
We also like eSebco’s smart or-
dering system—if we try to buy
a title we already own the system
blocks the purchase. This saves
time in having to check holdings
before we order.”
• Ability to choose the titles
needed for our curriculum.
Ev-
erett says the eSebco sales rep-
resentative spent six hours with them going through every
title and working through the ordering process to ensure they
acquired the titles they needed. She says the eSebco search
capabilities allow them to find materials on subjects suitable
for a variety of grade levels.
• Instant access to materials.
“Once you click order, it’s
there. You can’t ask for anything faster,” Everett says.
• Full mobility.
Everett said that the eSebco app for the Ap-
ple iPhone and iPad, enables students and teachers to log
into the library, download a title onto their device and ac-
cess it whenever it’s convenient for them, without having to
worry about having Wi-Fi access to read it.
What has been the greatest value by using eSebco for
your ebooks?
Everett says it’s all about accessibility. “With eSebco we
get more books into more hands. We never have to purchase
duplicate copies of a title which allows us to purchase more
titles to meet curriculum needs. This is a win-win for all
teachers and students.”
This was a paid advertisement by eSebco. The article was independently written by a School Library Journal representative.
