[Web4lib] Kindle Lending

Wed Oct 27 10:58:45 EDT 2010

You don't need to be in the same city, town, state or region to share
a book using 3G.  When someone is not reading the book, permission
could be given by a Kindle owner in Mass to a Kindle owner in
California or in St. Louis.  The virtually LibraryThing-cataloged
virtual book could be discussed by a virtual book Club virtually
meeting via video conference using Skype or with avatars in Second
Life.

Virtually,
R. Balliot
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:36 AM, Marcie Brandriff <Mpierson at cwmars.org> wrote:
> Check out this blog post from Wired's Epicenter:
> http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/10/amazon-now-embraces-nook-sophies-choice-lending-features/
> One title can be loaned once to one person, and the original owner cannot
> read the title while it's on loan. How is that helpful? A book club couldn't
> share one title among several members - half of them would have to buy it
> and each one lend to one person who didn't buy it. I suppose that's similar
> to buying a physical book - only one person can read it at a time. But if
> those people live nearby, one person could pick up the book while the other
> one wasn't using it. (And you can have your friendly local librarian borrow
> multiple copies for each book club member to read - for free.)
>
> And Kindle still doesn't work with libraries.
>
> Marcie Pierson Brandriff
> Reference Librarian
> Grafton Public Library
> 35 Grafton Common
> PO Box 387
> Grafton, MA 01519
> 508-839-4649
> 508-839-7726 FAX
> mbrandriff at cwmars.org
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of Robert Balliot
> Sent: Wed 10/27/2010 9:02 AM
> To: Tim Spalding
> Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org; Publib
> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Kindle Lending
>
> Really?
>
> We gave my 70 something mother a Kindle for her birthday.  I think it
> was the 3g type.
>
> She loves it.
> She brings it with her.
> She can easily read the type.
> The books are relatively inexpensive.
> The device is very lightweight.
> It does not require directed lighting.
> She does not need to drive to the library to pick up materials or check them
> in.
>
> If she uses LibraryThing and creates a book club group, she could
> share titles nationwide.
>
> How is that not exponentially better?
>
> R. Balliot
> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 12:01 AM, Tim Spalding <tim at librarything.com> wrote:
>> Look, strictly speaking, this doesn't affect libraries whatsoever.
>> Non-personal use of Kindles is expressly prohibited under their terms.
>> Some libraries are playing with Kindle lending, ignoring the
>> prohibition and hoping nobody notices. Eventually publishers and
>> Amazon will take action, much as British Publishers did recently in
>> cracking down on distance lending of ebooks.
>>
>> The situation is simple. Publishers want to restrict library lending
>> of ebooks, unless they can recoup retail-like money for each rental.
>> They The first sale doctrine allowed libraries to buy books on the
>> same terms as anyone else, and lend them out like nobody else
>> did--extracting significantly higher value from them. Publishers and
>> authors never really liked that arrangement, and now that they have a
>> licensed good to sell, they can stop it. People who think publishers
>> will allow libraries to buy and lend ebooks as before are kidding
>> themselves.
>>
>> As far as users go, the full details aren't available, but it is said
>> to resemble the B&N "lending" which:
>>
>> * Only applies to some titles, at the publisher's discretion (which is
>> constrained by author rights agreements).
>> * Can only be done once per title, for two weeks.
>>
>> This isn't "exponentially more valuable," even to a solitary consumer.
>> It's marginally more valuable than previous ebook licenses, and
>> exponentially less free than non-digital book rights.
>>
>> Lastly, and with respect, I want to express profound confusion why
>> librarians would promote a device that cuts libraries out, and that
>> incorporates monitoring and censorship mechanisms profoundly counter
>> to often-expressed ethical standards. That ebook cut libraries out is
>> clear to me, but I acknowledge some don't agree. But look at the
>> privacy issue. A few years ago many librarians went mad over the
>> prospect that the federal government might make requests for check-out
>> records for individual patrons suspected of terrorism. I have seen no
>> outrage as over promoting devices that continually monitor and record
>> everything you read, when you read it, who you shared it with, and
>> every annotation you make, and put it in a cloud-based service—which
>> triggers a lower standard of legal protection—under control of a
>> company in no way responsive to library ethics.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Tim
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 5:09 PM, Robert Balliot <rballiot at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> First we had the gigantic price drop in Kindles, now they become
>>> exponentially more valuable as sharing devices:
>>>
>>> http://bit.ly/8YzWu7
>>>
>>> How will this impact lending libraries - public and academic?  A pooled
>>> list
>>> of books using a book club could create a dynamic shared resource, not
>>> unlike the public library model.
>>>
>>> R. Balliot
>>> http://oceanstatelibrarian.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Web4lib mailing list
>>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
>>
>
>
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