Van Wylen Library now has an Amazon Kindle DX available for Hope students, faculty, and staff to use. It can be checked out for two weeks at the first floor circulation desk.
The Kindle DX, an e-reader designed by Amazon, can hold well over 3000 books in a device that is thinner than most magazines. Van Wylen’s Kindle currently has several titles similar to what you might find in the browsing collection, such as The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Dr. Rhoda Janzen of Hope’s English department.
“We want to stay abreast of new developments and be able to share them with the Hope community,” said Brian Yost, Head of Technical Services and Systems at the library. “We hope to get feedback from those who use it so we can purchase things people need or want to use.”
Colleen Conway, Technical Services Librarian, owns a Kindle for her personal use. She bought the Kindle for the sake of having a consolidated library.
“The idea of being able to put a lot of books on a little thing was very interesting to me,” she said. “It doesn’t require a computer, which is something most book readers before the Kindle required.”
Unlike a computer, the Kindle is not hard on the eyes if you use it for hours on end. The Kindle is designed to seem like reading off a piece of paper, complete with page turns. Because reading on a Kindle is supposed to feel like reading a physical copy of something, the Kindle is not backlit. This makes it possible to read the Kindle easily, even if you’re in bright sunlight. However, this does mean if you choose to read on a Kindle at night, you’ll need some sort of light. The reasonably priced books, fast download speed, and extremely long battery life more than make up for this.
Interested in trying out a Kindle? Come to Van Wylen and check one out!
— BJS —
I am so excited about this! I would love to try it out soon!