“They weren’t easy to get,” said Joanne Washington, a librarian at FCHS. “The school district has limited funds, and so we only ordered three.” The devices cost a total of $300, “and we bought them with a discount,” Washington said. To keep costs down, the librarians only purchase ebooks to download onto the Nooks if they can get them through Nook “Deals of the Day.” “We can get books for as low as $1.99 that way,” Washington said.
In this way, Washington said, the Nooks are actually saving the school money. “We’ve downloaded 25 ebooks on the Nooks so far,” she said. “Had we bought them in hardcover, those books would have been more expensive than the Nooks themselves. Since we can add up to 1,000 books on each Nook for as little as $2 per title, that can save a lot of money,” she added.
Students can check out a Nook for up to three weeks at a time after students signing a permission form. “For a lot of kids, this is the only access they have to eBooks. We see it as a chance to expose them to technology that they’ve never been exposed to and which they will need to know later, whether at college or in the workplace,” Washington said.
“They were cool,” said student Alexis Nelson. “I had never had one before,” she said, adding “I think that they could have more books on them if they let students buy them.”
Popular titles which are available on the Nooks include the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, Divergent and its sequel, Insurgent, and The Gathering.
“I like it because now you have the bookmark,” said eight grader Ranishia Crenshaw, “so you can’t lose your place no matter what, and it tells you what book you’re on.”
“Personally, I’m a fan of the eBook,” Washington said. “I have a Kindle at home. I love it. Anything that encourages kids to read is a plus in my book.”
