Bring on the e-readers

There’s been a lot of hype lately about how ebooks are being used in schools and libraries for children and adults. Ebooks are popular, and some children as well as adults say they prefer reading ebooks to reading print. Librarians, always eager for anything that increases the love of reading, would like to increase their collections. But what can we do for children who don’t have e-readers? Even though these devices have become more and more popular, they are by no means universal. Some libraries manage with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) but that penalizes parents who cannot or prefer not to buy e-readers, and the policy opens the possibility of teasing and competition among the children.

The preferred solution for most libraries is to buy devices and make them available to children either in the library or to borrow. A report in School Library Journal gives a round-up of the possibilities and problems in buying Kindles, iPads, and other reading devices in children’s libraries. Even setting aside the expense, which can sometimes be covered by donations or grant money, there are complications. The companies that produce e-readers have aimed their devices at consumers not libraries. Books are designed to be used on only one device at a time. Vendors are not always prepared to handle agreements for purchasing multiple copies of ebooks. For classroom use, the devices have to be synched so each child is looking at the same book and this is a problem.

There are far more questions than answers to the many problems in providing ebook collections and e-readers in children’s libraries, but patrons want them and librarians are going to have to work with publishers and vendors to figure out ways of providing access. Libraries and schools are large purchasers of books and should have some leverage in getting publishers to move more quickly to move to digital books. The purchase of the devices, administration of collections, availability of titles wanted, integration of catalogs, and the high costs involved are barriers. This is the kind of problem that professional associations are designed to work out. It’s time for librarians, individually and in groups, to pressure publishers and others in the business to confront these issues and provide answers. The children can’t do it by themselves, so this is a time to step up our advocacy and speak out for the young people in our schools and libraries.

Will Amazon take over libraries?

The big news in the tech world today is the unveiling of not just a new Kindle tablet, but of four new Kindles. Libraries have been watching all the new ebook readers coming out because so many patrons prefer digital books to their paper counterparts. One of the major factors in limiting the use of a library's ebook collection has been the fact that they were not available for Kindles, the most popular format for ebook readers. Recent announcements that Kindle books can be used and lent by libraries have made many librarians and teachers happy, but this new influx of brand new products changes the outlook again. Not only will lighter, less expensive Kindles be available for reading ebooks in the familiar e-paper version, but a new Kindle tablet with color and touchscreen will attract many parents and children who want all the illustrations and design of picture books onscreen for younger children. What will librarians and teachers do with these new products? The first thing we have to do is study what the new Kindles will provide. The high-end Fire tablet that Kindle offers is an entirely different object from the plain vanilla Kindles owned by individuals, and some schools and libraries, today. These tablets will do far more than screen books--they also will stream movies--Amazon has announced a deal by which it will be able to provide a wide range of movies for people to download. Besides that, the reader can surf the Internet through the new Amazon cloud service. Every teacher and librarian should take a look at some of the new features being offered. Although the news reports coming out today focus on the variety of experiences available to users, teachers, librarians, and parents will also want to consider the new distractions for the young people using the tablet. Will a library reading group use the new Kindle to anchor a lively discussion about the new Rick Riordan tale, or will half the group wander onto other screens to look at the latest movie? There is always a trade-off between having wonderful new content available and having more offered than most kids can deal with. The new Kindles with their many offerings will excite many adults who work with kids. We are always looking for new ways to lead kids into reading and learning. The trick is to integrate the products into a school or library setting. We need to find out what kind of borrowing privileges we can offer, how expensive the books and other content will be, and how the the kids are going to react. Whatever the final decisions made about purchasing, teachers and librarians have plenty of homework to do in preparation.