Broward County Library Reports Success Circulating Sony Reader
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 07/18/2008
- Program at Main Library expands to two locations
- Lesson: circulate chargers too
- New developments in device expected
(For an update on the use of Sony Readers by library patrons, see "Sony and OverDrive Strike Ebook Deal; No Wireless Access Yet for Library Users".)
Though libraries are often wary about circulating hardware devices, and the Sony Reader is not yet optimized for libraries, the Broward County Library (BCL), Fort Lauderdale, FL, reports significant success—after some bumps in the road—in what it calls its Sony Reader Circulation Project. The project is funded by the Broward Public Library Foundation. “Our Director [Bob Cannon] has long supported technology in the library and wanted to pursue circulating some form of handheld technology,” reported Elizabeth Prior, BCL’s Manager of Grants and Development.
So far, BCL has spent about $10,000 for 13 paperback-sized Readers plus hundreds of books; each Reader cost $350 and holds an average of 80 books, which range in price from $5 to $20. The Readers can be borrowed for three weeks and appear in the library’s catalog. However, a user can’t determine from the catalog what books are stored on the Reader—although each user is allowed to select two books to be added to the device.
Given that the library doesn’t assign a credit card to the Sony account, library staffers use pre-purchased Sony Connect Store Cards to select some titles (e.g., best sellers) expected to be in demand, while others are added by customers. Older, seldom used titles can be deleted from the devices to make room for new titles and can be stored on a library computer.
Promotion efforts
The Reader was initially promoted at lunch hour events at the Main Library. While the wait list for each Reader reached 25, the number now is about ten. Readers, which offer three font sizes and a non-glare screen, are being used primarily on vacations and business trips. Given that response, the foundation will spend $9000 to expand the program with 20 new Readers at two additional locations, plus new titles for the program at large, and packaging. “The new locations are partnered with local universities so we are also targeting college students,” Prior said.
When the program first began, users became frustrated because the battery died sooner than anticipated. The library responded by circulating the device’s charger along with the Reader. Thus far, only one Reader has not been returned, and the library blocked the customer’s account, using Unique Management, requiring payment. (The library doesn’t have the capacity to take credit cards as deposits.) No units have been returned damaged.
Going forward
Library officials hope that the next edition of the Reader—now priced at $299—may offer more flexibility to libraries. Daniel Albohn, Manager of New Business Developer for the Sony Reader, told LJ, “I fully expect, in the months ahead, that libraries will experiment more with Sony Readers, including circulate them to their patrons.”
Sony has been demonstrating, at IDPF’s digital book conference and BookExpo America in May, how a future edition of the Reader might work with Adobe Digital Edition software and the new open file format .epub—both of which would make a library lending model easier. Sony also raffled off a Reader at a meeting of the Urban Libraries Council during the American Library Association annual conference last month in Anaheim, CA.
Meanwhile, the Sparta Public Library, NJ, reports that it is still circulating Amazon.com Kindle devices to happy library users; though Amazon officially looks askance at such practices, the company has not contacted the library, according to Assistant Director Diane Lapsley.
