Kindle Update

For those of you who read my original Kindle report, you know how my experience with it went. If you did not read it you can find it here: My Short Life with Kindle.

Since then the kindle has been circulating through the library staff and four more people have had the opportunity to experience it. Reaction to date has been completely positive. Some of the issues with usability/ergonomics that I originally pointed out have been repeated by other staff members. But along with the criticisms there have been many more comments from my fellow librarians like:

I must confess I am in love.

Once I got used to the ergonomics of the Kindle, it was easy and enjoyable reading from it. I was captivated by the Kindle’s potential as a study tool for students, teachers, clergyman, and people with specific areas of personal passion and research.

I began to see possibilities for the Kindle that surpass those of the humble book. Devoted Luddite that I am (was?), I already adored two features: the option to supersize the font and the capacity to highlight a word and instantly link to a dictionary.

I just placed our library’s Kindle in the hands of yet another librarian. It should be interesting to see if the support and excitement continues.

Presentation

Yes this is a filler post and is basically self promotion!

Last week I had the opportunity to give a 15 minute presentation and participate in a panel discussion at the Midwest Library Technology Conference. The session was called “Avatarbrarians: Librarians at the Point of Need, Virtually” and my presentation was titled “Learning to be Avatars.” If you forget the first part with the puppets (inside joke) things went well. If you would like to see the slides from my presentation you can view them on SlideShare.

This was my first presentation at a library conference, buy not my first presentation. I had a great time at the conference and recommend it to all librarians in the Midwest, think about adding it to your calendar for next year. After many discussions between sessions and over food, I have several more thoughts on presentations I am gong to be developing, some I have already touched on in previous posts here and others are thoughts I have been developing lately that play off my technology and marketing backgrounds. I look forward to sharing them with you.