As seen in the Deseret News
BYU's Harold B. Lee Library is suspending a short-lived pilot program
using Amazon.com's
electronic book, the Kindle, as a substitute for interlibrary loans.
The program, which has been available to faculty members for about a
month, created some buzz on library-related blogs for breaking ground in
the uncertain area of lending books on the Kindle.
Although BYU had verbal permission to proceed with the program, Roger
Layton, communications manager for the library, said the program is on hold
until the university has a clearer picture of Amazon's legal concerns.
I found a Kindle blog with a list of other libraries who are doing Kindle lending, plus a handful who are lending Sony readers. Amazon doesn't appear to have given anyone explicit written permission for lending, but that hasn't stopped about a dozen libraries for going forward. Those who have reconsidered have looked at the cost, e.g. this note on Tinfoil + Racoon:
Before I heard from White today, I was talking with our IT manager, who
wondered if it was time for us to check out some Kindles. I did some
math and could not come out with a number that made me think "good
value." We're cancelling a bunch of databases for abysmal
cost-per-search numbers, and a Kindle, loaded with a small number of
titles didn't come out with a good cost-per-circ. When I mentioned this
to White, she said that they looked at loaning Kindles as a
try-this-tech program. It's not about the content, according to White,
but about the experience.
Note the metrics used to evaluate services!
Recent Comments