Kindles

Over the summer I test drove a Kindle on behalf of the library (I know, sometimes you've gotta just take one for the team) with a view to buying a small set for the library.  To my surprise, I didn't hate it.  My only interraction with them previously was a quick, 'Ooh, can I have a look?' when my brother got one, and I confess I didn't like it then at all.  The plastic felt horribly plasticy, the buttons were clicky and it made my eyes hurt when it flashed up the next page in negative before it 'turned'.  But when it was my only readng option, I quickly found that I forgot about the device and concentrated on the words.  Within about a week, I found myself saying that I was going to read my book.  Then after three weeks travelling and not breaking my back lugging around all of A Song of Ice and Fire, I realised that I loved it.

The decision to purchase a set for the library though required more than that.  Three things happened within the space of a week that made up our minds.

1. Amazon joined up with Overdrive to offer Kindle lending through US libraries.
I think this will spread to the UK pretty quickly and Kindle's position as the dominant e-reader is a lot stronger.

2. A fellow school librarian recommended an e-book management app called Calibre, which means that it would not only possible, but also relatively easy to transfer single books to clean Kindles.   One concern was that if we were issuing full Kindles with our full collections on them, we'd have a) no way of noting down which books were being borrowed and b) no way of checking suitability.  Game of Thrones is not suitable for Year 7s, but Year 10 will LOVE it.

3. The new Kindles were released.  Smaller, simpler, with fewer clicky buttons and a lower price tag.

Sold.

So our first five Kindles are on the way.  We'll trial them, see how the students react and go from there.