The UOC Library offers loans of e-book readers

Oct. 27, 2009 - PRLog -- The initiative has been a great success in its first week in operation. The Library management are to assess how the service works and users' level of satisfaction in order to decide whether to offer this service on a long-term basis.

Barcelona - Following on from the University's pioneering project to offer e-book readers to postgraduate students on the Free Software course, the Library is now offering all its users access to one of the fourteen e-book readers (or e-readers) available for loan anywhere in Spain or for use at one of the Library's centres.

Use of electronic ink reflects the UOC's general desire to innovate in technologies applied to learning. The Library is working on a shared aim, alongside the rest of the UOC's departments, to promote e-book readers as an extension of the Virtual Campus, as both platforms can be synchronised to offer support to students throughout their university studies.

This project sees the UOC adopt a more proactive use of the technology, helping develop new teaching tools while exploring other technological possibilities. Alongside this new service, the Library's website has also added a section on e-book readers, offering a wealth of information on these devices and the technology. This section includes a search engine for teaching materials available from the University and the Library's collection of e-books. It also offers detailed information on how the e-book readers work and the regulations governing the pilot test for these new services.

The collection of materials available for the e-book readers includes teaching modules for UOC subjects (in PDF, mobipocket, ePub or HTML format), thus stressing the academic uses; but the Library also highlights the other possibilities offered by these devices, including the collection of e-books, open content and a range of classics from the world of literature.

To have a device on loan, library users have to request them via the catalogue, as they would for any other library resource. They can only be picked up and left off at Support Centres or, for UOC staff, a UOC Office.

UOC - Open University of Catalonia - The Global Online University, offers online courses in the languages English, Spanish, Catalan and French.  For more information about the online courses offered by UOC visit the website TheGlobalOnlineUniversityUocEdu.  For individual questions or enquiries, contact the training advisor team at +34 93 326 30 00, or send an e-mail to: queries@uoc.edu

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The UOC - Open University of Catalonia - is an online university born from the knowledge society and whose mission is to provide people with lifelong learning and education.