The Department of Education is seeking to establish an SOA that will enable Eligible Customers to purchase eBooks via a subscription service with the goal of achieving the following objectives:
- supporting student literacy by enabling schools’ equitable and affordable access to eBooks;
- providing all schools with access to an eBook collection significantly larger than individual schools could afford on their own (particularly benefitting small and remote schools);
- supplementing school library print collections with eBooks that can be borrowed and accessed from home, with little to no administration required by the school; and
- supporting students of all abilities to access audiobooks, read-along books, and engaging texts for reluctant readers.
The Department’s eResource Services team has provided eBooks to Queensland State Schools under SOA since 2016. The service was instigated due to a need in schools for eBooks to supplement their print library collections, encourage reading for enjoyment and boost digital literacy. The demand for eBooks in schools is strong, and continues to grow. The eBooks Digital Library service saw 344,512 resources borrowed in 2019, 856,036 resources borrowed in 2020 (an increase of 148%), and 1,171,768 resources borrowed in 2021 (an increase of 37%). Schools are predicted to again borrow over 1,000,000 resources in 2022, based on current average daily checkouts.
The SOA will cover the following Products and Services which are managed either centrally via the Department’s Library Services team or locally by schools:
- The delivery of eBooks (including audiobooks and read-along books) that may be a standalone service or have the capacity to integrate with a Library Management System (LIMS) or other eLearning system.
The following is out-of-scope for this SOA:
- any infrastructure improvements (including networks) to facilitate any increase in bandwidth required; and
- costs associated with replacing or modifying schools-based LIMS to gain access to a federated search.
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