Amazon Steps up to the Library EBook Plate

On April 20th, Amazon announced the Kindle Lending Library project, a model for licensing and lending Kindle eBooks to libraries. Amazon will partner with OverDrive for this project and use libraries' existing OverDrive collections. As you can imagine, this sent a wave of excitement through the community. Although some librarians were initially concerned, it appears to be all good news. Both Amazon and OverDrive have published press releases, although OverDrive's contains more details.

On the flip side of things, many of the, as I like to call them, heavies in online libraryland wrote some interesting and insightful posts in reaction to the news. For anyone wishing to investigate this matter further, here are few links to explore. Happy reading!

• Librarian in Black: Questions we should be asking about Kindle Library Lending
• Librarian by Day: Some Questions for OverDrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library
• Pattern Recognition (by Jason Griffey): Kindle Library Lending
• Stephen’s Lighthouse: Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books
• Agnostic, Maybe: Houston, We Have a Problem

Change your words, change your world

The other day, my Auntie Corrie forwarded me a link to a commercial on youtube. It was for a company called Purplefeather and was a very moving representation of how a slight change in wording can drastically change the effect your message has on the world. The video reminded me to think about how libraries portray their messages to patrons. We've talked about this before in our blog, but I think it's worth mentioning again because I think positivity is contagious and if patrons have a good experience at your library, chances are they'll return and probably tell their friends to go too. Wouldn't you love for your library to be the place in your community that everybody loves to go to?

Take this sign, for example:

http://mrschu81.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/post-at-the-kanapaha-botanical-gardens/

I find this a much better and much more humorous reminder to parents than a sign saying "Please don't leave children unattended in he library"

Give it a try, if you haven't already. And if you have, let me know about it! I'd love to hear about how your library has changed your signage and how it's impacted the people who use your library!!

Creating an EReader Lending Policy for your Library

Since the Southern Alberta Library Conference, a number of Chinook Arch’s member libraries have been asking about lending eReaders. I can only assume that this is linked to the presentation given by Sarah Felkar of West Vancouver Memorial Library on eReader Lending. (If you are interested, Sarah’s slides and handout are available on the SALC 2011 website.) While there are many things to consider when lending out eReaders, I would like to talk about creating a library lending policy.

If you are planning on lending out eReaders creating a well-worded, comprehensive policy is a must. From reviewing other policies, your policy should likely include what devices you are lending out, who can check them out, how long the lending period is, how many times they can be renewed, if holds can be placed on them, what the overdue charge is, whether the items contains preloaded titles (very common and highly recommended) and how the eReader should be returned. I have also run across policies that include whether or not patrons can put titles on the eReader from sources other than library’s collection (definitely something to think about) and if borrowers need to sign an acknowledgement agreement of replacement costs.

Here are a few policies that might give you some ideas when crafting your own. I am sure that you can easily find many more, but these should provide a good start:

- Irvin L. Young Memorial Library in Whitewater, Wisconsin
- North Vancouver City Library
- Greater Victoria Public Library (This policy mentions that the eReader lending package includes an instruction’s sheet, quite likely created by the library.)
- Maine State Library (This one includes a sample users agreement and a link to other policies.)

The act of creating a lending policy will help you address any service issues that may crop-up for front-end staff as well. Before and during your policy creation, be sure to discuss and share your ideas with other library staff. They will likely have lots of questions about how the lending and receiving will occur and ideas about what should be included in your policy. It might also be a good idea to create trouble-shooting guides and documentation for staff about how to handle these new materials. Hopefully, by engaging in this process you will get a better sense of how best to provide this new and emerging library service.

Gamification in the Library

Wouldn't it be nice to be rewarded for your good behaviour?  Well, that's the theory behind "gamification" - the idea that people enjoy playing games because of the positive reinforcement from doing something well.

In Sweden, authorities have been using this theory to encourage people to obey the speed limit.  They use photo radar not only to catch speeders but to reward those who drive either at or below the speed limit.  Those who follow the rules are entered into a draw to win a portion of the revenue collected from those who speed.  By making it into a game, they are encouraging more people to obey the law.  Cool idea eh?

Well, librarian Brian Herzog (The Swiss Army Librarian) came up with the idea of using this theory to encourage patrons to bring back their books on time.  Rather than focusing on fines for overdue items, patrons are encouraged to practice responsible borrowing by being rewarded for abiding by due dates.  The reward can be small, such as being entered into a draw for a gift certificate.  Try this out for a week or a month and be creative with the rewards offered.  Be like the Swedes, use the theory of gamification to encourage good behaviour.

(Source: The Swiss Army Librarian, http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2011/03/31/gamify-your-library-fines/, March 31, 2011)