Learning Lab

Narrator: Unidentified female.

VISUAL: e-Books in Academic Libraries.

What are they? How do they work? Why are they different? RMIT University logo.

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of a female sitting against a tree trunk in its shade and reading a book.

There are other trees beside her.

VISUAL: Camera pans in on this image to focus on the female sitting, reading her book.

Narrator: Imagine a book as a container.

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of a large red book, bound with ring around it of gold brass that is fixed with a padlock.

There is a row of books in the background.

Narrator: With a traditional print book, the information or content and the container are locked together.

VISUAL: Lock is broken and the book lid is opened up (like a chest), streams of binary code ie 0 and 1 are coming out of the book like a fountain.

Narrator: With an e-book, this physical connection is broken and the information is released from the container.

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of girl sitting against trunk of tree reading a book (same as seen earlier in video) and two other students, one male and one female who are both sitting leaning against their own tree trunk.

The female student has headphones on and is looking at her laptop; the male student is wearing earbuds and is holding a smartphone which he is watching.

He has an open book beside him on the grass.

Three streams of binary code fall from the top of the screen onto each person’s device starting with the female sitting in the centre of screen looking at her laptop, then the female sitting reading her book and lastly, the male looking at his smartphone.

The stream dissipates until it’s finished in the same order as it fell, ie finishing last with the male student.

Narrator: This is still dependable quality information but you can now access it in a variety of formats.

This makes it ...

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of a hand moving across lines representing sentences on a tablet and highlighting the lines in yellow.

Narrator: ... more convenient to work with.

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of a female sitting at a desk in a library looking at a laptop.

Narrator: In university libraries e-books work differently from the ones you buy for personal use.

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of six volumes of red covered books.

They are standing on a shelf.

The shortest books is to the left of screen, with each book gradually increases in height to the tallest at the right of screen.

The book spines are labelled Volume 1 (being the shortest on the left) to Volume 6 (being the tallest on the right).

A xylophone stick hits each book in order starting at the shortest as if it’s playing an xylophone scale.

Narrator: As with print books ...

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of a computer and scanner in the library.

The computer screen shows a picture of how to scan.

A red book is passed over the scanner.

Narrator: ... you borrow e-books from the library.

VISUAL: As per previous image.

Red book is to the left of the scanner and the screen now shows a green tick for successful borrowing.

Narrator: This means that even if you've ...

VISUAL: Computer image colour drawing of the downloading icon ie an arrow pointing down in a circle.

Narrator: ... downloaded a book it will disappear from your ...

VISUAL: Computer image colour graphic of a tablet leaning on its stand, with a pile of books in the background.

A digital timer with red numbers is counting down very quickly from 2:00 to zero.

Narrator: ... computer or device at the end of the ...

VISUAL: As per previous image but timer has been removed and a yellow stream of binary code is evaporating from the tablet.

Narrator: ... borrowing period.

And not all e-books are the same.

VISUAL: Computer graphics of the word e-books written in five different texts and colours is gradually overlaid over each other on the screen.

Narrator: Individual publishers decide how their e-books can be used ...

VISUAL: Computer image graphic of five clock faces in different colours, each has different times, the minute and second hours are spinning around quickly.

Narrator: ... which leads to differences in how long you can borrow for ...

VISUAL: Computer graphic of a tablet with horizontal lines representing the sentences.

First, the left page and then the right page on the tablet is highlighted in yellow.

Narrator: ... how much of the book you can copy, print ...

VISUAL: Computer graphic of a printer on the left of the screen and computer graphic of the download arrow icon on the right of screen.

Narrator: ... and download and also ...

VISUAL: Computer graphic of a Reader software eye icon.

A hand pointer moves across the screen and clicks on the eye icon then disappears.

Narrator: ... whether you need to get extra software ...

VISUAL: Same as previous computer graphic image, magnifying glass zooms in on the Reader software icon.

Narrator: ... to view the content.

VISUAL: Computer graphic drawing of a male wearing sunglasses and an Aloha shirt sitting on a deckchair at the beach, drinking a green cocktail with a straw and raising his eyebrows as he slurps up his drink.

He has a laptop open on his lap.

Narrator: Plus you don't have to go into the library ...

VISUAL: Same image as previous, male gives thumbs up sign and a yellow plane enters the sky to the right of the screen behind him.

Narrator: ... to borrow or return e-books ...

VISUAL: Yellow plane flies past screen pulling a banner which reads No fines.

Narrator: ... and there are no fines.

E-books are a great ...

VISUAL: Computer graphic of an addition/plus symbol, following by the word Library and then the word e-books.

Narrator: ... addition to what libraries offer but when it comes to ...

VISUAL: Computer graphic of a search engine box, the hand pointer moves across the screen and then the following words are typed in the box: Stephen Hawking.

The hand pointer then clicks on the search icon.

Narrator: ... finding information, e-books are only part of the picture.

VISUAL: Computer graphic of library shelves, seven shelves high, filled with books.

Narrator: Print books are still really important in university libraries.

VISUAL: Computer graphic image of a dark red book titled World of Frogs.

Narrator: Books for some subject areas ...

VISUAL: As per previous image plus a brighter red book titled Text is placed beside the World of Frogs book.

Narrator: ... and most text books are still only published in print format.

VISUAL: Video computer graphic of pile of books, laptop on desk.

Camera pans back to show female sitting and working at the laptop in a library.

Narrator: So make sure you research widely for all your assignments.

VISUAL: RMIT University Logo and website www.rmit.edu.au.