New library loan program offers iPads, Nooks, Kindles
As technology continues to play a vital role in education, VCU Libraries are taking another step to link the two together with the introduction of an experimental loan program of iPads, Nooks and Kindles.
Eileen Mellon
Contributing Writer
As technology continues to play a vital role in education, VCU Libraries are taking another step to link the two together with the introduction of an experimental loan program of iPads, Nooks and Kindles.
Currently, laptops are the number one item that patrons borrow from VCU Libraries, but now there are 27 Nook Color e-readers, 24 Kindles and 20 iPads available for rental through the new program.
The loan program is part of VCU Libraries’ ongoing and constant work to improve public services and better meet the needs of its students.
The program is designed to expose students to different popular technologies. The popularity of e-books has evolved, and e-books are becoming more and more of a focus of the collection of titles at Cabell, with currently about half a million available.
Through the new e-readers, students will have access to materials that are not currently available in the print collection.
Popular fiction novels like Suzanne Collins’ “Hunger Games” trilogy and Stieg Larsson’s “Millennium” trilogy will be available, but there is also an extensive amount of works including essays from philosophers, political documents like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and religious texts.
Teresa Doherty, head circulation and information services and access librarian, expects that students will soon have their own mobile-reading devices and the library will concentrate on providing content to the students which can be accessed by these devices.
