Among the hardcovers and paperbacks at the Lunenburg Public Library is a different kind of book, for which dozens of people are on a reserved waiting list.
Earlier this year, Lunenburg Public Library added three Kindles — a hand-held electronic device that can hold entire books — to its lending collection. Each Kindle holds 28 different titles.
“They have been absolutely amazing. They are very popular,” said Amy Sadkin, director of the Lunenburg Public Library. “We have more than 15 holds on the three Kindles, and have just ordered two more through the Friends of the Library which will be available in five or six months.”
In recent years, e-readers have become one of the popular must-have technologies. The Kindle, an e-reader offered by Amazon.com, is the most popular of the electronic devices. It is about the thickness of a pencil and can hold more than 3,500 downloaded books. The Kindle offers classic books for free, with other titles at $9.99.
There are two other similar devices — the Barnes & Noble Nook, and the Sony Reader, both of which allow owners to download books at local public libraries through the library consortium, the Central-Western Massachusetts Automated Resource Sharing.
Source: The Telegram.
Why the Kindle?
Given that the Sony Reader, the Kobo and the Nook allow for downloading books from the library, I wonder why they didn’t go with one of those instead? It would be easier to update.
Years ago my library loaned out the http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Rocket_eBook Rocket ebook
with a variety of titles preloaded on them They were quite popular .
Your headline reminds me
of an old Marx Brothers routine…
why a duck? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECODePT6VHM
Cheaper? Easier for people
Cheaper? Easier for people to get their own Kindle if they liked it? More well known than the others?
Greater awareness, and greater usage also builds a wider community for tips, troubleshooting etc.
Or maybe someone was using Amazon and the idea popped into their head?
I’m surprised I’ve not heard (not to say it’s not happening) of Amazon doing deals with Libraries to provide Kindles.
Unless Amazon changed their
Unless Amazon changed their terms of service the lending is a violation.
What about iPad
It’s great news that the libary is giving out kindles – but what about iPads? Kindles are great for books but ipad would make reading periodicals and magazines so much easier.
Danny – blogger @ http://ipadcasereview.org