My friend, Buffy Hamilton, recently had a very unsatisfactory conversation with a representative from Amazon Kindle Education. According to the company, Buffy's LibGuides page contained incorrect information about the Amazon End User License as it relates to Kindle use in school libraries. Read the complete posting at the Unquiet Library blog.
The bottom line is that Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia, will no longer be purchasing Kindles for its library media center.
With Kindle sales contributing to "robust revenue growth" for Amazon, the loss of business from a single Georgia high school might seem insignificant...except for two pertinent facts:
- this librarian is well-known and well-respected as a library leader; her opinion is trusted
- Buffy used her social networking skills to get her message read: on the day the posting appeared, it received over 4500 hits
I own a Kindle and love its convenience. Amazon one-click shopping means I can purchase a title and have it instantly delivered to my reader electronically. However, if I were acquiring multiple devices for educational use, I would opt for the library-friendly Nook.
Referring to the both the experience and the responses she's received, Buffy wrote this Facebook message, "All I can say is the Amazon has truly underestimated the potential of the K12 market."
Someone in the corporate realm had better be listening.
2 comments:
I am glad that you posted this. I had missed Buffy's post, and this will certainly impact the purchases I make for my library. I wrote a grant to purchase e-readers for out library and had specific Kindles, but will be reconfiguring my plans.
Great post. Keep in mind also, Overdrive (the company that leases e-books to libraries) is compatible with the Nook, and several other brands of e-readers... but not the Kindle.
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