Kindle Not a Good Choice for Libraries

Rochelle writes:

http://rochellejustrochelle.typepad.com/copilot/2008/01/never-mind-lega.html

Whoa. Wait a minute.  Stepping back from my Kindle krush and putting aside the question of whether or not it’s legal for libraries to loan them, I considered the Kindle issue through the eyes of a public library manager who has to make decisions about how to get the most out of a budget. Duh!  It’s a no brainer. There is no way  I could justify deploying Kindles, given the present model. The machine itself is 400 bucks and can hold up to 200 titles. Let’s say that the average price of a Kindle title is 10 bucks. That all adds up to almost $2500 tied up in a resource that can only be used by one person at a time.  For that much money, I could buy more than 100 titles for check-out, a few reference sets, a year’s access to a database, a bunch of cds, audio books, or DVDs,  a couple of display units, some comfy furniture, conference registration plus travel and lodging for a couple staff members, a contract with a coffee vendor, honorarium for program speakers….  

Rochelle, could we call your “Kindle krush” technolust? Thanks for the update.