Kindles & Nooks in school Libraries

Derrick-

Just wondering what method you use to pay for your downloads. Our state does not allow school credit cards and we are not allowed to buy gift card. Just looking for a solution to this problem. Thanks in advance! Kathy

Came across this article that I thought you all would find interesting:

"Clearwater High sees success with Kindles"

Some interesting quotes:

"Yeah, the Kindle makes us a little more interactive, you know, gets us focused, not just flipping a page," says Jonson.

"It's basically taken my whole locker to something that doesn't even weigh a pound," he adds.

Kathy:

We have a corporate account with Amazon that allows us to pay with purchase orders. Here's a link to the information: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=518230

We don't have Nooks or Kindles at our school because of money, but I own a Nook Color. I prefer the Nook mainly because it is compatable with our Public Library's OverDrive E-book program, which allows me to check out E-books for free. I also prefer the backlight and the touch screen. For information about Nookstudy go to:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy/download/index.asp

I like this method. Are e-books be compatible with laptops as well? Our schools statewide are participants in the Apple laptop program, so all students have laptops already. If e-books are compatible with a programs on a laptop, buying readers on top of the laptops would no be necessary.

There are numerous books for free download. A popular site for finding free ebooks is Open Culture. If you use Kindle, you just have to make sure that your district or school adds Amazon as an approved vendor.

You are definitely able to read ebooks on your Mac. You can download an app for you computer through Amazon or the new Mac Apple Store. It's free. I do have to say that comfortably reading a book from a desktop or laptop isn't always the best way to read. Tablets offer readers the opportunity to be mobile. I'm sure there is also a tactile element to the whole thing.

I found this website for a presentation by Duke University on the ups and downs of ereaders and the copyright as far a ebooks in the library.
I am in the process of purchasing 5 Nooks to use with a group of low readers.
http://www.slideshare.net/CharlestonConference/delivering-ereaders-in-an...

Some of you may have seen my post through LM_Net. How are you accounting for the circulation of the e-books? The Kindle or Nook circulation is easy enough, but the books are a bit of a challenge. Is accounting for the circulation of the e-book important or not at all? That's the challenge that's being faced at our high school.

Since December 1, we are offering 5 Kindles loaded with the SC Young Adult Book Award nominees - 18 titles on each Kindle. Students who read continually love them and so do some of their parents who use them when they circulate home!!! They circulate for 2 weeks - we have had one Kindle damaged. We cannot document that students read more because of the enticements of the technology. We cannot justify the cost of $350 per Kindle (includes warranty, cover, and book downloads) and the amount of time it takes to keep track in the OPAC and in the technology database. While I do not like propriety software products, I chose Kindle because it was a closed system over Nook et. al. because they offered other services beyond the reading option that I thought would interfere with the purpose of my "plan". However, we know more about e-readers now than we did and I do not regret doing this pilot. I would appreciate information on other e-reader delivery systems that are not propriety - Over Drive, Blio, and others