Kindles

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The Amazon Kindle seems to be establishing itself as the leading e-reader and a few colleges are starting to buy these. There are of course many other options (not least tablet devices), including the excellent Bebook and Sony Reader. The RSC has examples of the Kindle and Sony e-reader, if you'd like to borrow one for a short period to try out. 


I thought it would be useful to summarise what you can and can’t do with a Kindle from a library point of view, as well as some of the benefits of the Kindle more generally .


I’ve had a Kindle for a few months now and have enjoyed using it, especially as I haven’t had to spend a penny on content, as most of my reading is from out-of-copyright works, which can be freely downloaded from sites such as Project Guthenberg. 


This kind of material can also be freely lent to students on the Kindle. However, it isn’t currently possible to lend Kindles containing copyright material within the terms of the Kindle license, although this may be changing soon (see JISC Legal advice below).


Usability
The Kindle is a compact, but robust device with a very clear e-ink screen, which can be read even in bright sunlight. Battery life is excellent and will last for up to a month with wi-fi turned off. Although some of the buttons on the Kindle are rather fiddly, the overall accessibility of the device is good and it includes a good text to speech facility (but not available on all books) and the maximum font size is quite large. Readers can also get an instant definition of an unfamiliar word, which is useful. The Kindle also includes a basic Web browser, which although you wouldn’t want to use this as your sole access to the Web, it is still useful to have. 


Lending
The UK Kindle license is designed for personal use and copyright Kindle content must be viewed on the Kindle linked with the original Amazon account used to purchase the e-book, which makes lending impractical. In the US, Amazon have introduced e-book loan within their license terms (anyone can borrow, but you have to be US-based to lend), which is a better model for libraries. There is also a text book rental service available to students – but again not yet in the UK. 
A quick trawl of Twitter and various news sites reveals a lot of rumour and speculation that Amazon is on the verge of revising UK licenses to make them more like the US, but there’s been no concrete announcements as yet. 


Overdrive are working with public libraries (and at least one college that I know of)    in offering their managed lending software, which can be used with a variety of devices (but not yet the Kindle). 


JISC Legal advice on Kindle lending: here and here


Other uses of Kindle 
The Kindle can do a lot more than display books – have a glance at some of these other usage options:


Send to Kindle:
Install the Send to Kindle Google Chrome plugin and you get a button on your Web browser, which when clicked, sends the content of a website to your Kindle for reading later. A great way of reading lengthy web pages off-line, on the easier-on-the-eye Kindle screen. 


Kindle Publishing:
If you are a budding author, Amazon have now introduced direct publishing to the Kindle store:


Not got a Kindle, but have a PC or an I-pad/I-phone?
You can read Kindle e-books using an Apple App or Amazon’s free Kindle for PC software.


Must get free software: Calibre
Calibre is a great piece of free software for your PC and will manage your e-books across multiple devices (and formats) and allow you to turn your Kindle into a feed reader, so you can catch up on the latest content from your favourite newspapers, magazines or blogs. 


"Hack" your Kindle – 100 tips and resources
Well worth exploring!


More information

• The lis-ebooks JISCmail is a good place to start and is mainly populated by librarians.
• JISC e-books for FE project page
• E-books in the library Powerpoint. Although American, this sums up many of the issues for libraries well.