The school term which has just ended was the first where Biblius, the platform which allows the loan of digital books in school libraries in Quebec, was accessible to 99% of the network of schools in Quebec. Biblius, it is in its mandate, wants to bring digital literature, especially from Quebec, into our schools. Portrait of the beginnings of this assault.
“We are creating a market that did not exist for children’s digital books,” said Jean-François Cusson, CEO of Bibliopresto, which oversees Biblius. “In a few years, when there will be a generation of children who will have grown up with this, we will maybe see the impacts,” continues Mr. Cusson, who believes that Biblius has the potential to forge digital book readers. of tomorrow.
Teachers can now use Biblius to read and research what they want to work on in class. They can also use 40 digital copies at a time, to study a book in class, each student with their tablet copy in hand – a feature that is still little used. Teachers can also suggest specific books to certain students, directly on the platform.
Pupils, for their part, have the leisure to borrow securities as they wish, in their age group. And, for those who know obstacles to reading, start the speech synthesis, which comes with all the books available on Biblius, to “listen” to the book.
“Biblius does not cost schools anything,” Mr. Cusson recalls. The service is now considered a basic service of the education network ”, and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEES) bears all the costs. The MEES also pays the rights of use and author of a small starting collection of 407 books, mostly from Quebec, with a few books also from Gallimard, Albin Michel or Scholastic editions, for example.
The illustrated book, big star
For now, this shared collection, free for schools, is very popular. “We opened it at the end of September, and we’re approaching 80,000 loans already. It’s going pretty fast, with an average of 2,000 pounds borrowed per day. Schools only have to pay “if they want to buy more digital books and develop their collections locally,” by acquiring licenses for some 22,000 books now available on Biblius.
These additional acquisitions are almost necessary, because if “the shared collection is a beautiful collection, it remains very limited”, analyzes Mr. Cusson. “407 titles to cover kindergarten through continuing education and adults, that doesn’t make many books per level. “
Still, the ten books most borrowed by Biblius in the network during the last session are all from this shared collection. The “top 3“, made up of Sisters, by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic), by I am terrible, Élise Gravel (The Short Ladder) and Drama, again by Raina Telgemeier (Scholastic), alone raised 6556 loans.
At the Center de services scolaire des Mille-Îles (CSSMI), all literary genres are borrowed from Biblius, but in elementary school, librarian Lyne Rajotte notes a marked preference for illustrated documentaries and comics, “like Did you know or the Dragouilles [tous chez Michel Quintin] “. An astonishing fact when we know that in general, the illustrated book is less successful in its digital versions than the full text.
The start of Biblius at the CSSMI is “really a positive experience”, rejoices Mr.me Rajotte, who nevertheless had solid criticisms to make on the eve of the restricted deployment of the platform a year ago. All the downsides she noted then have been rectified, she says. And she can already say that Biblius is a success in her CSSMI.
To arrive at these conclusions, she relies on the statistics of the 3 schools, out of the 72 of the CSSMI, which were part of the restricted deployment of Biblius last year. “We had 1,533 users who made 15,951 loans. We see regular borrowing from several students – probably our avid readers of paper books, who also seem to become avid readers of digital books. We see 30% of users who have borrowed only once, another 30% who have borrowed two or three times, and the rest on a regular basis. It’s huge, ”comments the specialist, especially for digital books and a project in its infancy.
A contagious tool
In one of these schools, still illustrates Mme Rajotte, the librarians provided Biblius training and support to two teachers. “Finally, a hundred teachers borrowed. It spread in the community, through the influence of teachers with their colleagues. Isn’t that a sign that the tool would be effective? “The deduction is good! »Rejoices Mme Rajotte.
However, the librarian noted a few details to be corrected. “We must put a limit on the number of digital books that a child can borrow, as in a public library,” she gives as an example.
“There is none, which allows children to assemble if they want a personal library of 75 books. When it comes to books from the shared collection paid for by the ministry, no problem! But if I buy a book for $ 140 and each loan costs me $ 3 or $ 4, if a student borrows it, I would like them to read it. “
Because the cost of buying books, still determined by publishers, remains the sinews of war. Some publishers believe that digital books on Biblius are cutting off sales of paper books. Each publisher currently determines the coefficient he adds to the price of his book for the simultaneous use that Biblius allows – some multiply by 2, others by 10.
500 books, unlimited use
Angèle Delaunois, editor and author at Éditions de l’Isatis, chose the lowest coefficient, and offered her entire catalog to Biblius – which is not the case for all, some preferring to keep their novelties or their featured books. outside this system, for fear of cannibalizing their sales, or the rights of their authors. “I bet it was going to be beneficial,” she says. “The figures I see go in this direction. It does not change much for the sales of paper books, exceptional this year. Maybe it even stimulated them, ”she believes.
Several of his books are in the shared collection. For those, which will be until August 2022 “always accessible and available, without limitation of use”, the editor was entitled to “a purchase of 500 copies, at the general public price, made in August 2021”. For the most borrowed books in this collection (see box), this amount may be insufficient. But Angèle Delaunois believes “that a portal like Biblius will create reflexes among young people. We are lagging behind in digital terms compared to European countries. Maybe it will change. “
At Bibliopresto, the team is still pinched for deploying Biblius so quickly. “That we managed to do that, with the publishers, [l’entrepôt de livres numériques] From Marque, booksellers, people from the MEES, this super beautiful project with no real comparable in the world, which touches a lot of people, from its first year of establishment ”, Jean-François Cusson still cannot believe it.
“The project stayed a bit under the radar, also because we didn’t want everyone to stick to it at the same time. But now we have to make it discovered. That teachers who want to do digital experiments, or who have a coconut in their class with specific reading needs, that they try, are interested in it, want to play with it. The next step: extend it to private schools, which should be done by the end of the school year, according to Mr. Cusson.