Managing eBooks

[Marcia Kochel]

I am circulating Kindles to middle and high school students and I have divided my Kindles into sets of 6 since Amazon lets users put books on 6 devices. This seems to be pretty standard in libraries. I have heard that if you use the Kindle app on a computer or iPad Amazon does not count it as one of the 6 devices. This is making me wonder if a student has their own iPad or iPhone and wanted to read one of our eBooks on it could I let them do it? Would there be a way to stop them from downloading more books? (On the Kindles I deregister the account before circulating them and the book remains on the Kindle.) Is anyone else thinking about these issues or coming up with library policies?

[Mary Alice Powers]

Marcia-

I am about to purchase a few Kindles and the new iPads. I saw a policy for iPads on a university library's web site about a reference to a default setting on their loaned iPads once returned from circulation; hence, their policy states that any information downloaded by users on an iPad will be "lost" once the device is checked back in--- & the library is not responsible for lost data or personal information downloaded by the user. Apparently, one can establish a "default setting" with the apps. only the library puts on it ;when the device is returned, library staff reset it (probably using a password) back to the default.  I am currently working on a similar type of Kindle/iPad policy for our middle/high school and would like someone to review it.  Obviously, secondary schools are NOT universities, so it can't be too wordy for parents to read through.

[Marcia Kochel]

Interesting. When an ipad comes back you could just re-synch it back to its original settings and any new content would go away (and deleted apps would come back). And Apple asks for a password before buying an app so you could keep kids out of your account that way. What I'm specifically worried about with the Kindle apps is that there is no password to purchase from the Kindle Store. Amazon has it set up to be "one click" purchasing and there's no way to turn that off or require a password. I wouldn't care if they added public domain books but I wouldn't want them spending down my credit card. If I were circulating iPads I would definitely want to inform people that their own data will be removed once the iPad is returned. I'm hoping to get some iPads but I will not be circulating them to students. We'll be using them in the library and teachers will be able to take the set.

[Mary Alice Powers]

Uh...I was under the impression from other school librarians that by "deregistering" the device each time you loan it, means that users are prevented from purchasing titles on the library's account unless the user has his/her own Amazon account?  Perhaps it's different if libraries use gift cards to purchase titles (and a P.O.) rather than the credit card.

Marcia Kochel said:

Interesting. When an ipad comes back you could just re-synch it back to its original settings and any new content would go away (and deleted apps would come back). And Apple asks for a password before buying an app so you could keep kids out of your account that way. What I'm specifically worried about with the Kindle apps is that there is no password to purchase from the Kindle Store. Amazon has it set up to be "one click" purchasing and there's no way to turn that off or require a password. I wouldn't care if they added public domain books but I wouldn't want them spending down my credit card. If I were circulating iPads I would definitely want to inform people that their own data will be removed once the iPad is returned. I'm hoping to get some iPads but I will not be circulating them to students. We'll be using them in the library and teachers will be able to take the set.

[Marcia Kochel]

Deregistering works great on the actual Kindle, but it doesn't seem to be an option on the Kindle app for iPad/iPhone.