Kindle...How do you manage your books

[jonnykewell1]

We have 20 plus kindles now in school. How do you manage them? If you buy a book off the amazon store I take it I need to buy 20 of the books? also do I need 20 accounts one for each of the kindles? If so this must be an absolute nightmare? any info would be much appreciated. Edited September 26, 2012 by jonnykewell1

[denon101]

Nope... One account multiple kindles is possible. So buy one book and all can get to it! However they do not connect through a proxy server. So you will need either 3g ones or update each one over usb. That my experience with a kindle.

[jonnykewell1]

we have done that but can we do it so it's legal, at the minute the kindles are sharing 1 purchased book across the kindles.

[denon101]

As far as I understand that is legal. There is no stipulation on the amount of devices that can have the books. Providing you bought the book and own all of the devices.

[mavhc]

In theory each book has a limit to how many devices it can be on, usually 6 I thought. Re proxy, set up a transparent proxy using ipcop or something

[featured_spectre]

After a lengthy phone call with Amazon earlier in the year, it is 1 book per 5 devices (if you wish to be covered legally). They said they check when the devices connect to the web how many times a single account will pull the same book.

[tmcd35]

I looked into this for our Librarian early this year and got thoroughly confused. The multiple device facility for Kindle, as I understand it, is so 1 person can read their book across multiple devices not so that multiple people can read the same book. The problem with Kindle and it's licencing is that it is aimed at consumers not libraries. There are schemes such as, OverDrive – Global distributor of digital eBooks, audiobooks, music & video for library, school & retail, which correctly manage the licensing for lending out ebooks but they are expensive.

 

After much reading up I told my Librarian that if she buys books from Amazon then she must by either 1 copy per Kindle or restrict the book to being on 1 Kindle at a time. This is then the direct equivalent to purchasing physical books for the library. Although I thought the law on this was very grey, I thought nobody would complain if they saw we tried to cover ourselves properly.

[plexer]

The limit on how many devices 1 book can be on can be set by the author.

 

Ben

[jmak]

I thought 6 as well, but @tmcd35 's logic makes sense.

Have you looked at Calibre

Works well with the Kindle and has a good range of DRM free books.

[denon101]

Well there you go...... I have learned something today. Just as well we don't own any Kindles at school!!! HAHA!!

[british_government]

I have never used kindles in a work environment but for my own at home I find this util very handy, could be useful in a school too?

 

The Kindle Collection Manager. The Windows app for your Kindle