Posted by kindle sucks, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Mar 13, 2011 at 10:24 pm

The Kindle is locked up tighter than even an ipad. Buy a Nook if you want to borrow library books.

Posted by Ric, a resident of Mountain View, on Mar 13, 2011 at 11:14 pm

Have issues with that article, but if libraries and especially publishers lock things down to specific DRM, elending isn't likely to work. See how many audiobooks required various MS support flavors when everyone used iPods?

It's further complicated by Amazons lack of ePub support, but thats no solution as long as the ePub is DRM locked to specific OS variants. Nook doesn't automatically get you around these issues.

The plans to expire ebooks after 17 or 24 lends is further showing publishers fear of theft (however justified) will get in the way of their interest in libraries and the masses.

Posted by Anon., a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Mar 14, 2011 at 1:20 am

Ebooks are a great idea ... but unfortunately they do not really give the value they should.

First, with a real book you can pick it up in the store and read as much as you like everywhere. On Amazon you can read some of the first chapter or preface, and nothing on some ebooks.

When you buy the prices are very high for most ebooks. the idea that it costs anywhere near as much for an audiobook or ebook. you have no value left of the book when you are done with it. you cannot lend it, sell it or give it away. This should be a crime.

The state of the world demands that we move to things like electronic format for books and media ... so we need to have some fairness in what we get and how much we pay.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Mar 14, 2011 at 8:41 am
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

The Kindle is way overpriced - it is the Beta of e Books. Bring it down to $100 and open the code and then, just maybe.

Posted by nookie, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Mar 14, 2011 at 9:42 pm

I've been loving my nook. I use epubbooks.com for public domain books that I can own for free, and I use the Northern Cal Digital Library to borrow more recent books - free but with a 3 week expiration date. Not everything is available there yet, but there is an awful lot. It's fabulous to be able to just download them and not have to worry about overdue fines.

The ability to borrow ebooks is why I chose nook over kindle.

Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Mar 15, 2011 at 8:54 am

Dear shocked in Silicon Vallley - you are shocked that a company - Amazon - that sells books and ebooks does not want you to read them for free on their proprietary device? Guess what, they charge for physical books too! And Apple charges for songs on the Ipod...

Posted by nookie, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Mar 15, 2011 at 9:27 am

You can read library e-books on the Barnes & Nobles Nook e-reader. B&N sells books and e-books just like Amazon. They don't mind if you also read free library books on their device. Amazon is just a crook trying to steal your money.

Posted by PA_Mom, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2011 at 11:44 am
PA_Mom is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Apparently Kindle books are now available for more than 11000 local libraries.

Web Link

I haven't seen anything at the PACL web-page that mentions anything about it though :(

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2011 at 11:56 am

What? And now we have 5 libraries so of course we won't.

Posted by a9, a resident of the Adobe-Meadows neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2011 at 12:08 pm

Amazon's Palo Alto office is at the corner of Lytton & Alma. If you don't like their policies, you can protest directly to them.

Posted by palo alto mom, a resident of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood, on Sep 21, 2011 at 2:26 pm

Why would we need ebooks on our kindle when we can walk to one of our 5 libraries?