E+Reading+Discussion

RIEMA Conference E-Reader Lunch Discussion Summary 28 Participants

Online E-Books Members of the discussion group volunteered information about Follett’s Shelf. One participant said she purchased some e-books and is experiencing issues with books disappearing. She is working with her Tech. department and is not sure if it is a Follett issue or an issue related to her district. Another participant said that she had an issue related to trying to return a book before its due date; it could not be checked in early.

E-Reader Devices Two members of the discussion group reported just receiving/order Kindles. No members of the discussion group had an active Kindle program as of yet.

Kindle vs Nook Many participants expressed concern that Kindle is exclusively proprietary with Amazon. Many participants expressed favoring the Nook as a choice because it will accept epub.

E-Reader Issues Much discussion concentrated on the following topics: 1. The future ability of purchasing one title that can be shared/downloaded on multiple devices (Amazon allows 6 Kindles to have the same title, Barnes and Noble always 5 Nooks to have the same title). 2. The future possibility that publishers (and/or Amazon and Barnes and Noble) will limit the total number of check outs of an e-book. For example, an e-book may only be checked out 26 times and then the library would have to purchase another copy. 3. Will E-readers be obsolete? As teacher-librarians, should we be focusing on e-books that can be read on PCs, laptops, tablets and Smart Phones rather than e-readers? Will e-readers go the way of VHS and CD-ROMs?

Questions 1. Why was the e-reader discussion separate from the iPad/laptop discussion? 2. The discussion group discussed interest in asking RILINK’s Dorothy Frechette to research the possibility of RILINK having OverDrive e-books available for subscribing school libraries to purchase for patrons to borrow for free (like the public library system). 3. A suggestion was made to ask RILINK for a professional development workshop on the topic of e-books. Specifically, could Mackin and Follett give presentations about their e-book products and could competitive group rates be available for RILINK school libraries to purchase?