Today Roxanne and I unboxed our five new Kindles (more are coming) and began the process of setting them up for circulation. We also took a couple of hours to finalize our thinking on the procedures and protocols for cataloging the Kindle readers as well as the Kindle ebooks. You can access the documents below by downloading them from SlideShare, or you can get them from our new Kindle LibGuides page.
.I also have created a little “update” video post; we’ll be trying to create more of these as to chronicle our journey and process of piloting our Kindle program at The Unquiet Library.
Two things we discovered today that we did not know:
- You can charge the Kindles through your computer (it has a power supply/USB cable similar to iPhone/iPod).
- The instruction manual does not indicate how long it takes to charge the new Kindles; it would be helpful for Amazon to include this information.
Our next step is registering and cataloging the devices this week; we’ll also be purchasing our Kindle eBooks and cataloging those as well as loading them onto the Kindles. Please stay tuned for more updates!
The Unquiet Librarian 
Thank you for sharing this information. I am very interested in adding eReaders and am interested in learning through your experiences. Was there something in particular that influenced your choice of Kindles?
Deb
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We actually are planning on piloting Nooks—we just happened to start with Kindles because that is the format I’m more familiar with at this time. Nooks are coming in a few weeks!
Best,
Buffy
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Hello – Could you tell me if you piloted the nooks and if so what was your feedback? thank you
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Hi! All the information is available here at http://www.theunquietlibrary.libguides.com/nooks. Best, Buffy
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The Kindle 3s do not take a long time to charge, although I believe the recommendation is overnight for the first time, just to make sure there isn’t any wonkiness with the meter. The light around the power switch will stay orange while it needs to charge and turn green when it is fully charged – giving an easy indication.
I’m looking forward to hearing more about how this all works out. Good luck!
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Thank you for that tip–they are all charged up this morning! We’re excited to see what the kids think about the Kindles, too–we have had a small line this morning already coming in to get the permission/acceptable use forms! I can’t wait to hear what they think about it–we’ll be documenting and sharing that in this space, so stay tuned. Thank you for the good wishes!
Buffy
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Were you able to buy them through a purchase order? How about the ebooks? We can’t use a credit card!
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Good morning!
Yes, we were able to purchase via a purchase order–we set up a corporate account to do this. I can email you the details if you like on that process!
For the ebooks, we can’t use a credit card, either, but we got permission to purchase American Express gift cards. We’ll use those to purchase the ebooks. 🙂
Let me know if I can give you more info or help in any way!
Buffy
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I am coming to the conversation late, but I would also like to buy e-readers for my high school library. Would you be willing to share any information on how to set up a corporate account to purchase Kindles with a purchase order and also how to the actual books without a credit card? I was not able to get any good information from Amazon itself.
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Hi! Did you try this link? http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Accounts/b?ie=UTF8&node=600460
If you click on “open a corporate account”, you should be able to click through and set up an account easily. If your school has a tax ID #, you might want to have that handy.
With the corporate account, you can buy with purchase orders.
I hope this helps!
Best,
Buffy
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Thanks so much for sharing all this information. You guys rock.
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Could you please clarify–when you buy The Lost Hero for the Kindle, do you create a catalog record for The Lost Hero (Kindle format)? or do you just add the title to all the Kindle device records? My impression is that the book is attached to the record for the Kindle device, rather than having its own record, but I can’t tell for sure.
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Hi Bonnie!
Some people are doing just what you describe (see previous comments for specific details on which MARC field to use, etc.), but since I can’t edit my MARC records at this time, we are not adding titles to the record for the device (that was our original plan). We do have resource lists students can browse for each Kindle online and keep print copies, too, but until we regain our rights to edit MARC, there is really no “good” way for us to edit our records as others are doing (lots of great suggestions in the comments here on my blog, btw, for doing just that!).
Best,
Buffy
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I was wondering if you leave the Kindles registered or deregistered when you loan them out. Are there any reasons why you shouldn’t leave them registered if you have a gift card and not a credit card attached to the account? Thanks for the information. Your site has been very valuable for me in getting our Kindles ready for the students.
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We leave them registered–it is too time consuming w/ the number of books and Kindles we have right now to register/deregister every single time. I’m trying to spend up the gift cards in one sitting so that extra credit is not sitting out there available to students.
Thank you for your kind words and for taking time to read my blog! Let me know if I can help or answer additional questions!
Best,
Buffy
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One more question, please: do you circulate the charger with the Kindle? Thanks so much!
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Great question–yes! 🙂
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Buffy,
Your site has been wonderful as I work my way through Kindle-World! I thought you had a video of the procedure for registering the Kindles with Amazon…Could you provide that info to me?
Thanks again for sharing with all of us.
Esther Andrle
Hampton Middle School Library
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Thank you so much for your kind words, Esther! I think the videos are all available here: http://goo.gl/nNw5z.
Best,
Buffy
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Brave new world! Thank you so much for sharing how to obtain, catalog, lend, and use ereaders and ebooks.
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