A Kindle in the Library

The end of the school year is a great time for academic libraries. Not only do we get to celebrate the end of another semester, raising our glasses in thanks that the stacks didn’t catch fire or that student riots were avoided, but we also get to start planning for what we want to do the following year. When the spring semester comes to a close and the last student heads off campus for summer fun and the library goes quiet(er), librarians have a chance to channel some of their free time into new projects.

This year, we decided to take a look at what sort of role e-book readers, such as the Sony PRS and Amazon Kindle, could have in an academic library setting. Academia tends to change slowly and it is still a bit early to tell if these devices will be around for the long haul, but given the library’s role in providing access to information of all sorts, we felt it was worthwhile to test the waters.

Selection

We started by acquiring both an Amazon Kindle 2 and a Sony PRS-505 in order to take them each for a test drive. We decided against giving the Sony PRS-700 a go after reading about problems with its touch screen. This may have been a bit unfair to Sony as we were testing what was then the latest generation of Kindle against the old PRS. Maybe we’ll go back and give it a try after the kinks get worked out. We also skipped out on some of the other e-book readers out there like the iLiad or CyBook. Perhaps we’re biased against inTernal puncTuation.

Once we had the devices in hand and began to test them out in the real world, there was very little competition between the Kindle 2 and the PRS-505. The Amazon device was preferable almost across the board. The main strength of the PRS was that it played well with PDFs and didn’t require a special process to upload PDF files to it, unlike Amazon’s email pay-for-conversion scheme. We considered retaining the PRS for course article support, but then the KindleDX with its native PDF support was announced and the Sony device quickly fell out of favor.

So why did we go Kindle? One of the biggest factors was the form factor of the Kindle 2. It is much easier to hold than the PRS, one feels like they won’t drop it while turning pages. Big page turning buttons were a definite plus. The Kindle 2 turned pages faster with a bit less of a “flash” that some of our testers found distracting. The included keyboard on the Kindle 2 and its ability to accept user-generated notes was nice, but not something we felt was a must have. Librarians have never been too keen on letting patrons scribble in our books.

Another aspect of the Kindle 2 that I, as the person who would be running a larger pilot program, enjoy is the ability to manage Kindle content from my desktop. I can purchase and send books wirelessly from our purpose-created Amazon account to all the linked devices without the tedium of plugging each one in. Given that both the PRS and the Kindle have similar restrictions as to the number of devices that can carry a given book, the ability to manage content remotely is a huge timesaver.

I should also note that it was during this testing period, after about a weekend with a Kindle, that I decided that I needed one of my own. It took about a week of watching me read on my new toy before my wife wanted one of her own as well. A friend of ours who is a Sony PRS-505 user made some jealous grumblings.

Role

Anyways, once we decided that the Kindle was the device we were going to work with, we needed to figure out exactly what we were going to work. We had a lot of ideas. Given the increasing number of textbooks available on the Kindle, we considered using them as supplements to our already massive Reserve collection. Textbooks cost money, lots and lots of money, and students tend to be either poor or more interested in spending their money on things other than books. So Sawyer Library collects two copies of every book required for every undergraduate class at Suffolk University in order to help alleviate the strain on students’ (and their parents’) pocketbooks. Besides, have you seen the size of textbooks nowadays? They’re huge. Never arm-wrestle an accounting major – they are surprisingly strong from semesters of lugging around Intermediate Finance or Federal Taxation. So we felt the Kindle might have a role in supplementing our textbooks.

The problem with that, though, is that the library has little say in what textbooks are required for class. Not all texts are available via the Kindle Store, so some classes might benefit from the Kindle while others would not. We did find that a significant amount of texts required for the more liberal arts courses - English, History, Political Science, and so on - were available on the Kindle, so the device would definitely have a role in Reserves.

One other idea was to use the Kindles as our Popular Reading collection. Sawyer Library had one of those years ago before it was lost to space and budget demands, so there certainly was precedent. The trick there was selecting what books to download. Would we pick new releases? Best sellers? Would we have to download (ugh) Twilight?

In the end, we decided to let our patrons decide. With every loan of the Kindle comes a download of your choice. The library will pay for the download, the patron gets to read what they want, and our collection of e-books grows. Given the cost of a Kindle book hovering around $10 (more for some textbooks or computer books, less for classics and stuff that can be found in mass market paperback) that comes to $60 a month or so across all six devices, with the added bonus that each book can be spread amongst other devices. One book becomes six pretty easily, so a $720 annual cost for 72 books is pretty nice.

Permission

Next, we had to figure out if Amazon would even let us do this. I called up their customer support and navigated around the menus for awhile until I found a customer representative who would tell me. I was told that as long as we were not putting books from non-Kindle store sources on the Kindle (so no Calibre, no jailbreaking), we should be okay. That was fine with us and given the number of other libraries who have Kindle programs of some sort and we’ve yet to see a plague of lawyers descend on anyone we figure we’d be safe. And if worse comes to worst and we get a Cease and Desist letter, at least libraries will know where they stand when it comes to Kindle lending. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Cost

The whole pilot program cost us just over $3,000. That’s for six Kindle 2s, six cases, and a years worth of $10 downloads. We did have to purchase an extra charging cable after one of our testers lost theirs, but that was not too expensive.

The biggest potential cost is what happens if a patron decides to just start downloading new material? Since the Kindles are linked in to an Amazon account and there is no way to lock down the Buy Now button on the device. We opted to follow the example of some of the public libraries where were the first to lend the first generation of Kindles – we used gift cards.

We created a new Amazon account for the Kindles, one not linked to the library’s credit cards in any way. We purchased several Amazon gift cards (50$ increments) and added one to the account. When a book is purchased on the Kindle it’s charged to the gift card balance, thus limiting any damage a patron shopping spree could cause. Before checking out a Kindle to a new patron, I check the gift card balance and refill as needed. Large purchases (there are some $120+ texts in the Kindle Store) need to get approval of our Acquisitions folks, but beyond that, the patron is free to pick whatever they like.

We don't check the charger out with the Kindle. With the wireless turned off, a Kindle can last the full 28 day loan period on a full charge. With the wireless on, that time is reduced to five or six days tops. This helps to keep patrons from accidentally buying books by removing a bit of the temptation to browse the store. Some browse anyways and it's not uncommon to find a few of the free samples of books Amazon offers on a returned device. So far we've had no unauthorized purchases. I make it clear at time of checkout that any books bought beyond the first one will be charged to the patron's account.

Content

It has been interesting so far seeing what our patrons want to read. We do all our checkouts by appointment only, so I’m the one that actually downloads the patron’s chosen item. No Twilight (so far), but we have had some popular fiction (The Lovely Bones, Bridge of Sighs), some classic literature (Crime and Punishment), nonfiction (Team of Rivals, Outliers), and even some technical books (Spring Recipes, A Concise Introduction to Econometrics).

No textbooks yet, but with the majority of our students off campus until September, that’s to be expected. It will be interesting to see students’ responses to the device come the fall.

When a book is purchased, Amazon automatically sends an email receipt to the email attached to the Amazon account. Our head of technical services then checks this account and enters the book into our integrated library system with a location reading ‘Kindle’. That way, patrons can search for books using our OPAC just as they always did. The Kindles themselves have item records so it is pretty easy to see how many are checked out and when they are due. I also keep a log as part of my checkout procedure so I know who has what and which book they selected.

Response

So far, the response to the pilot program has been very, very positive. It’s been interesting to see the flow of patrons who come into the library to check a Kindle out. We’ve done very little on-campus advertising – just a sign at the Circulation desk and a blurb in the university news – but all of our Kindles are checked out for the foreseeable future. Being the person who runs the program and check out the Kindles, I see the spread of interest in the Kindle as it moves through the Suffolk community. A grad student sees her professor with one and is curious, a staff member listens to a coworker talk about it. Seeing the Kindle in use is perhaps the best advertisement for the device. The waitlist for a Kindle is roughly two months.

At least one patron has purchased a Kindle of her own after borrowing one of ours. Several more have added them to their holiday wish lists. Other departments have bought Kindles for their own use. Even those patrons who, after borrowing the Kindle, decide that it’s not for them, that they miss the traditional book, admit to reading multiple books on the device.

What’s Next?

Given the warm reception to the Kindle on campus, we’re looking to expand our program. The announcement and release of the KindleDX with its larger screen and native PDF support since the start of our program has rekindled (hah) the idea of using these devices to support our Reserves collection. Currently, we have a few large filing cabinets that get filled with printed copies of articles. What if instead of putting a few dead trees on reserve, we could use the DX instead? So many of our professors use Blackboard to provide articles to students, so it shouldn’t be too hard to round up a few to put on the device. And for those articles that are not available in digital form? We have an Ariel system lurking in the ILL department, ready to use. Maybe we’ll get another six Kindle 2s to help supplement in-demand titles. Why buy extra copies of Team of Rivals that will go unused after demand for the book dwindles when we could buy one digital copy and put it on six Kindles, knowing that in the future we can re-purpose them for whatever new book is in demand?

Final Thoughts

E-books are an emerging format that are still struggling to find a place in the world of publishing. We hope that by rewarding those publishers who take the plunge by buying their e-books we can encourage others to make more content available. I don’t think e-books or the Kindle will replace conventional books at all. From my own experience, I use my Kindle quite frequently but still buy physical books, still use the library.

The Kindle and its ilk are not a threat to libraries. They are an opportunity. For roughly $3,000 a library can set themselves up with a half dozen devices and a year worth of reading material for a variety of uses. E-books can be resized to assist those who have trouble reading small print. E-readers can be used to supplement current collections, filling temporary demand on materials like new books or required readings. The device itself draws in patrons who might not normally take advantage of the library. E-readers are not for everyone, true, but they’re also not just for gadget lovers.

I encourage librarians to take a look at the Kindle, or any e-reader, and think about if there is a role for it in their own libraries.

Drew Meger is the Circulation Manager of the Mildred F. Sawyer Library at Suffolk University. All opinions contained herein are his own.