July 21st, 2009 Brian Herzog
Hopefully by now everyone has read David Pogue’s NYT article about Amazon deleting Orwell’s books from its customers’ Kindles. Even though it’s been covered elsewhere, I wanted to throw in my two cents.
First, yes, it was shocking Amazon did this. Not that they could do it, but that, 1) they felt it was necessary, and 2) they just went ahead and did it. @librarythingtim linked to a good explanation of the whys and wherefores.
Hopefully libraries considering adding Kindles to their collections will take note. I’m not against ebooks, but I think too many people equate them physical books - and they are not that.
They are information, and libraries are right to pay attention to them. But customers, obviously, don’t own them in the same sense they own a physical book. Ebook vendors have gone out of their way to convince us of this, but DRM technology is simply designed to the contrary.
In the library world, ebooks are more akin to databases than real books. We have access, not ownership. Database contents and interfaces change beyond our control (although usually we’re notified first), but we’re okay with that, because we understand that. Overdrive downloadable audiobooks are very similar - Overdrive says we “own” the books we buy from them, but if we ended our contract and lost access to their interface (or they went out of business), how useful would those ebooks be?
So I think it’s the same with the Kindle. It’s a technology not at all designed for libraries anyway, but lots of patrons are asking about it. However, what would library staff say to the patron who brought in their on-loan Kindle to complain that 1984 is just gone?
Or worse, what if down the road Amazon decides it doesn’t like libraries loaning Kindles loaded with books, and just shuts down libraries’ accounts and deletes their books? It might credit the money to their accounts, but is that only good towards the Kindle Store? And what could the library do with their expensive, empty gadgets?
But I do think libraries need to try to make this work. We just need to recognize that we have very little control in this arena. And then, we can develop policies and procedures around it, or we can work to change it. I vote for change.
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June 4th, 2009 Brian Herzog
I saw this post and liked it for two reasons:
- I use a lot of this free software, and although I trust it, for some reason it makes me feel better about using it knowing that other people do too
- For libraries looking to expand their public computer offerings or security, these are no-cost ways of trying things out. Also, resources like LiveMocha (and others) are good to know about to supplement library services
Amazon’s bestseller lists are always intriguing - putting the “buyer’s advisory” twist on it, and with all free software, no less, is neat.
Via iLibrarian (<—subscribe to their feed, really)
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April 1st, 2009 Brian Herzog
Although the Kindle and other ebook devices are growing steadily in popularity, there is one advantage that libraries and bookstores still have: author visits and book signings.
Getting to listen to and meet an author in person is a great experience. And it’s something that you can only do in person - right? Not any more. Amazon has announced a new program in an effort to recreate this experience for its Kindle customers.
The new “Online Book Signings” portion of their Digital Text Platform lets Kindle customers watch a live webcast of an author talking about their book, and ask the author questions via realtime chat.
But the best part is that people who buy a Kindle version of the book will also be able to get it personalized and signed by the author. A demo (Kindle not required) of three titles is below - click a title, type in your name, and then download the signed book to your Kindle. Pretty neat.
This might start a whole new market for digital autographs - so collect all three!
Tags: amazon, april, book, Books, ebook, ebooks, fool, fools, joke, jokes, kindle, kindle2, libraries, Library, online, online book signings, public, signing, signings, slooflirpa See Also
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March 24th, 2009 Brian Herzog
I heard an NPR call-in show this weekend about the new Amazon Kindle, and the callers seemed to fall into two categories: they liked it because it was new and did things books don’t, or they didn’t like it because it wasn’t a book.
However, there was one point that the callers and host never seemed to make: books, magazines, newspapers, Kindles, skywriting, paintings, etc. are all just different ways to convey information.
The difference with the Kindle is that the information never needs to change formats as it moves through the supply chain. The author can type a manuscript on a laptop, email it to an editor, the editor forwards it to the publisher, the publisher creates properly formatted final copies, which the reader downloads and reads.
It can all happen without the information ever being manifest in the physical world.
This reminded me of how most money works now - paychecks can direct-deposited into a bank account, purchases made with a credit card, and credit card payments can be automatically withdrawn from the bank account. It feels like we don’t even need to be involved, as everything is electronic and automatic. I would say that all of my “wealth” is just on paper, but it’s not even on paper - it’s just stored in memory.
So I could be a rich as Scrooge McDuck, but it seems the days of swimming in cash are over.
Which seems to be part of peoples’ reluctance to the Kindle - there’s nothing tangible about an ebook, so it doesn’t feel real. Newspapers and magazines seem to fit well with the Kindle, because they are inherently temporary, but books have more of a permanence that ebooks just haven’t recreated yet.
They need to convince me that an ebook copy is going to last longer than the quick life cycle of these devices.
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August 28th, 2008 Brian Herzog
It seems like I learn of a new web tool or website feature every day.
A patron had missed seeing Hellboy II in theaters, and asked to be placed on hold for on the DVD. Since it’s not out yet, or even close to being out yet, I told him I couldn’t place a hold in our catalog.
The next obvious question is when is the DVD coming out. Usually I use the “DVD Details” section of IMDB.com for that, but in this case they didn’t have the information. So I tried Amazon, and this is where I learned something new.
They didn’t have a release date either, but they did have a record for it - and it let people add themselves to the list so they’ll be notified when it is available. Amazon calls this their “1st To Know” notification service, which I thought it a great idea.
I didn’t go through the steps, but I’m guessing that putting yourself on the list is also committing to buy a copy. But even still, I like that they are flexible enough to accommodate anticipated need.
Which is unlike most library systems. In my library’s catalog, patrons can place holds on items as soon as we put an “on order” record in the catalog, but we try not to put in on order records too far ahead of time.
On order records for books aren’t too bad, but movies are a whole different story.
Because we have different records for wide screen and full screen and director’s cut and 10th anniversary re-releases and every other possible iteration, putting a record in too early means we might end up with holds for something we can’t actually get. Or, if we buy the wide screen release and every other library in my consortium buys the full screen version, patrons with holds on the wide screen will have to wait for their turn, even if they don’t care if they get the wide or full screen version.
Being able to get an idea of demand early on would help in knowing how many copies the library should buy, but this whole version thing is something we haven’t found a good fix for yet. Amazon selling DVDs is certainly different than a library loaning DVDs, but there has got to be something we can learn from their model to serve library patrons better.
Tags: 1st to know, amazon, first to know, hold, holds, libraries, Library, on order, orders, public, request, requests See Also
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