the experience of the river forest public library (illinois)
TRANSCRIPT
The experience of the River Forest Public Library
(Illinois)
River Forest- Suburban Chicago community of 12,00 residents.
Circulating Kindles since 2008, Sony Readers since early this year.
Initial Challenges Nuts and Bolts of Circulating Kindles Kindles- How it’s going and patron
response Sony Readers- How it’s going and
patron response DRM, legality and lending issues for
digital content The future of ebook readers in the
public library
Ability to purchase content is linked to an amazon account and credit card number
De-registering Deciding on content We went with themed Kindles with
pre-selected content Letting patrons choose what books
they want on the Kindle?
Held up well to circulating Issues we were able to resolve:
• patron registered it to themselves• would not turn on• returned with no books on it• returned with cracks
Did not do any formal feedback gathering
Overall patron response has been positive…
Patrons age 18 and older. Three weeks. No renewals. Overdue fines are $1 per day.
Kindles circulate in covers with chargers in a zippered bag. Labels on bag list loan period and fine information as well as replacement cost.
Kindle devices cataloged, not Kindle titles. Circulation Staff checks device when it is
checked in or out.
Purchased two in January of this year Most Basic Edition- PRS 300 Pocket Thought we could use with Overdrive
but… We have a selection of titles and
patrons can choose which books they want on the reader
Device and titles are checked out to the patron
Same lending rules as the Kindle
Slow start but has picked up, 21 circs since January
Circulating more labor intensive than Kindles
One already broken- lines on the screen
We have had a couple of patrons who came up to me and said they really like using it…
Digital content- easy to copy, loss of $ and rights
DJ Hoek article-The Download Dilemma published in American Libraries.
Amazon’s Ambiguity?
eBooks we owned instead of licensed… Overdrive is good but… Compatability issues- different formats, devices, etc. Things need to change to make it really work for
libraries.
No Shelf Required- Blog
Amazon vs Book Publishers
The Download Dilemma
Blaise DierksRiver Forest Public Library
708-366-5205 ext 318 [email protected]
Feel free to contact me if you are interested in my full notes or if you have any comments or questions!