[LM_NET] Target: circulating audio books on STUDENT owned MP3/iPods

[Nicole Meintz <MeinN@COLDWATER.K12.MI.US>]

Morning, Netters!
Our public library here is doing something I think is really sweet- they have audio 
books that they download onto your iPod.  When you're done, you just delete the 
file.  I talked to the guy who set it up and they are actually doing this through 
iTunes.  The wording in the iTunes user agreement is that you can have the files on 
up to 5 computers, but an unlimited number of iPods.  Some public libraries in the 
area hold with the one item/one checkout policy (much in the way NetLibrary does, 
or any other book-lending library, for that matter), other libraries let anyone 
have the file on their iPod that requests it.

Obviously, going through iTunes, you MUST have an iPod, so anyone with another kind 
of MP3 players is out of luck.  I'd like as many students as possible to have 
access to the audio books, not just the iPod-ers.  I am an ardent Mac/iPod/iTunes 
enthusiast, but it appears to me that my "constituency" ...at least the ones I've 
polled.. are about a 50/50 split between iPods and other MP3 players.

I've looked at Playaways, but 1. they're pricey for my budget and 2. In a low 
income area, I "lose" a lot of books.  I cringe to think that I could lose them, 
too, when books in iTunes don't cost any more than the hardcover, and unless 
there's a massive computer crash, it would never be lost.

My question is this:  Have any of you tried anything like this?  What other 
options/vendors are there?  What are the drawbacks/limitations?  What are your 
thoughts on the issue?

As always, I thank you from the bottom of my media-loving heart!
Have a wonderful day!




Nicole Meintz, Library Media Specialist
Legg Middle School
Coldwater, MI
meinn@coldwater.k12.mi.us

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