Worth Waiting For: Kindles in the hands of readers!

First to check out a Kindle!

Finally! The saga of the Kindle Content has come to a very satisfying end. Gift cards arrived in record time, and I immediately began downloading the requested titles, splitting them into groups and hiring an eager group of students to run sets of Kindles down the hall to the doors to complete the downloads. (Go figure, the library gets NO 3G service.)

By the very end of the day, the loading was complete, and my little group of helpers were on hand to get their pick of the Kindle lots. Jen immediately called one from the PINK group so that she could read Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse-Anderson. By the end of today, all 5 BLUE Kindles were checked out, and a few students came in from English classes asking to borrow a Kindle for class IR.

Click here to see the titles on each group of Kindles (6 groups, 5 Kindles per group) Thanks to Kathy Parker and the EduKindle Ning for sharing the format we adapted for our AUP, found  here .

Bad Romance: breaking up with Amazon

I am breaking up with Amazon.com

Granted, I’ve been a bit impetuous when it comes to my technology relationships, but Amazon has always been more than accomodating, zipping gadgets to my door with record speed. But I’m kicking my paramour to the curb. Amazon is no longer meeting my needs, simple though they may be.

For instance, when I order $6000 worth of equipment for education, I think I can reasonably expect NOT to wait  Thirty Five+ days for an Invoice for Thirty Kindles for our library. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t pose much of a problem; however, my ex-amore also hit me with this unfortunate nugget: Our credit limit was capped, so we couldn’t order gift cards to purchase content for the Kindles until we paid for the Kindles. Hamster, meet wheel.

I thought we were finally making progress yesterday, when, still Invoice-free, our couples-counselor/tech coordinator convinced an Amazon rep to raise our credit limit. We assumed it would allow us to finally purchase gift cards, email them to the Kindle accounts, and begin buying the long-awaited content. Amazon policy for corporate accounts, however, requires that gift cards be mailed. Just like the phantom invoice. Please. Not. Another. Thirty. Days!

Today is March 17th. Twenty one days after my last Kindle post. Thirty eReaders remain stacked in my back office, charging periodically, hungry for content. The hoards of students who were checking in daily in hopes of walking out with an ereader have trickled off to nothing. My fingers ache from being crossed, and my eyes are tired from scoping the parking lot for a glimpse of my rebound Romeo –whichever UPS driver finally puts those sweet gift cards in my hands!