Sunday, August 7, 2011

Kindle in public libraries?

According to an article on ReadWriteWeb, "The CEO of OverDrive, which distributes e-books and audiobooks to libraries, has dropped a pretty obvious hint that the Kindle will join other major e-readers in public libraries in September. EarlyWord reports that Steve Potash looked "like a kid with a delicious secret" at OverDrive's Digipalooza conference last weekend, saying that he was "not allowed to announce a date ye[t]," but he included this blunt clue in his "Crystal Ball Report" during the final session:


Streamlining (both downloading and ordering)
Explosion (we have gone from two reading devices to 85 and more are coming)
Premium (the library catalog as the most premium, value-added site on the Web)
Traffic (enormous growth coming by year's end).



I find this agreement very interesting.  It is great news for public libraries and the general public, but not for school libraries.  Recently Amazon made the statement that a separate email address for each device is required.  This requirement seems a bit unruly for school libraries with numerous Kindles.   Is this Amazon's way of forcing school libraries to subscribe to Overdrive?  However, the policy just might send school libraries to the Nook!

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