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 No Shelf Required  Amazon vs Book Publishers Amazon vs Book Publishers  The Download Dilemma The Download Dilemma

Blaise Dierks River Forest Public Library ext 318  Feel free to contact me if you are interested in my full notes or if you have any comments or questions!