We are delighted to unveil the Biblius rollout calendar for the 2020–2021 school year!

As you’ll recall, the project is in line with Measure 17 of the MEES Digital Action Plan for Education and Higher Education, introduced in June 2018. In that plan, the ministry committed to rolling out e-book lending to Québec’s school libraries so that they can better meet the needs of the entire school clientele. The initial project timeline called for rollout of the platform across the entire school system after completion of a trial rollout phase.

Since last spring there has been an exponential increase in requests for access to an online school library. Remote teaching and the health measures introduced in response to COVID-19 have led to new needs in addition to those already expressed by stakeholders in the school system in the past few years (e.g., students with disabilities or learning or adjustment difficulties, use for teaching purposes). The Biblius project timeline is meant to provide some responses to that situation. 

Technical development

In collaboration with the participants in the trial rollout and all partners involved, we have developed an attractive, high-performance platform that is designed for ease of access and use. Technical development will be ongoing over the next few months based on user-experience feedback and the involvement of the various project collaborators.

Licence acquisition

Once connected, the platform will be empty and each setting will develop its own local collection, adding to its virtual library. The budget for purchase of loan licences is at the discretion of individual settings. Since the project is in line with the MEES Digital Action Plan for Education and Higher Education, however, there is no cost to access the platform itself.

A use licence specific to school settings has been developed in collaboration with ANEL and the Ministry of Education. Among other things, it provides for use of e-publications in teaching and learning situations. The detailed licence terms and conditions (e.g., number of loans, duration) are available here.

Several publishers have agreed to sign the licence and make e-book titles available for lending via the Biblius platform. 

At this stage of the project, the negotiated licences will be available from the LIQ (independent booksellers of Québec) institutional site dedicated to educational titles. School libraries will purchase licences to develop the digital collections for their setting from this e-bookstore, based on the needs of students and staff. Note that there can be only one digital collection per school service centre / school board.

Rollout calendar

Connection to the Biblius platform and access to local purchases will proceed in three waves.

Bibliopresto will contact the managers in the settings in question in due course.

 

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First Wave 

Who: All school service centres employing at least one school librarian and that have Mozaïk-Portal implemented sufficiently to enable connection to Biblius.

Steps and dates

Late november – Early december 2020

  • Biblius tile activated in Mozaïk-Portal by the IT department in each setting.
  • Purchaser accounts created on the LIQ institutional site and link created with the Biblius instance in each setting.
  • Training registration link sent.

17 december 2020 or 12 january 2021 (at the Wave 1 participant’s choice)

  • Training of librarians on use of the Biblius platform and the purchase process on the LIQ institutional site dedicated to educational titles.

January 2021

  • Local purchases begin for settings taking part in Wave 1 of Biblius rollout.

Second Wave

Who: All settings WITHOUT school librarians and that did not have Mozaïk-Portal implemented sufficiently at Wave 1 and/or were ready to connect but did not wish to be part of Wave 1.

Steps and dates

December 2020 – January  2021

  • If necessary, training provided by GRICS to persons in charge of IT departments to ensure synchronization of Mozaïk-Portal modules with ID management.
  • Biblius tile activated in Mozaïk-Portal by the IT department in each setting.
  • Purchaser accounts created on the LIQ institutional site and link created with the Biblius instance in each setting.
  • Training registration link sent.

February 16 or 25  2021 (at the Wave 2 participant’s choice)

  • Training of librarians or persons in charge on use of the Biblius platform and the purchase process on the LIQ institutional site dedicated to educational titles.

February 2021

  • Local purchases begin for settings taking part in Wave 2 of Biblius rollout.

Third Wave

Who: All settings that could not or did not wish to be connected as part of the first two waves.

Steps and dates

Beginning in April 2021

  • Training provided by GRICS to persons in charge of IT departments to ensure synchronization of Mozaïk-Portal modules with ID management
  • Biblius tile activated in Mozaïk-Portal by the IT department in each setting.
  • Purchaser accounts created on the LIQ institutional site and link created with the Biblius instance in each setting.
  • Training on the purchase process on the LIQ institutional site dedicated to educational titles and on use of the Biblius platform.
  • Local purchases begin for settings taking part in Wave 3 of Biblius rollout.

Private-school and Indigenous settings

As the platform is rolled out to Québec school service centres and school boards, Bibliopresto is also mindful of its duty to serve all school clienteles in the province. This includes, for example, Indigenous settings and the private-school system. Evaluation and planning of the necessary adjustments will be required between now and the end of the 2020–2021 school year, notably in technical areas; this will firm up the rollout calendar for those settings beginning in the 2021–2022 school year. Procedures to that end will be implemented over the next few months.

For more information, please see the section Rollout of the Biblius platform and local purchasing to all school boards and school service centres in 2020–2021 of the FAQ file.