Administrative Law

Classics and Commons on demand - a Kindle library is now available from Feedbooks

By Mary

Imagine having a free library of public domain classics in the air, and a device the size of a paperback that can download any title on the list anytime you want.  Imagine the library also has some newer creative commons licensed works.

Done.

Thank you, Feedbooks (and Teleread for telling us). Feedbooks takes advantage of Kindle's fast, free online access -- in a really innovative way.

All the Kindle user has to do is email Feedbook's "Kindle Download Guide" to [user]@kindle.com ONE TIME. That's it. The Guide has live links that then give you instant Kindle access to works by Thoreau, Tolstoy, Austen, Swift, Robert Louis Stevenson as well as Doctorow and Sterling. Searchable by using the KINDLE search function.

A better title for the Guide would be "Classics and Commons on Demand."

This content was exactly something I was thinking libraries could offer, though I was not able to imagine such a cool delivery method. 

Other ereaders can also make use of the guide, but the Kindle's EVDO delivery is what makes this really amazing.  I still stick with my recommendations that libraries get XO's instead of Kindles though.  They are extremely durable, can read more formats without conversion, and they have built-in wireless.  Users will need a hot spot to make use of that, but libraries increasingly offer free hot spots.

Full post as published by LibraryLaw Blog on December 19, 2007 (boomark / email).