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Hi Jonathan, What we've tried for our Kindles/Nook is sort of working ok, mostly. We initially set up our account using an institutional credit card (in between semesters, before the Kindles/Nook were in circulation). We downloaded a bunch of free books, then took the credit card information off and released them into the wild. At some point in the future, when they're all checked in, we could pull them and add more books this way. There is some funkiness (students try to email coupons to themselves, for instance, and so I get notifications) but it works pretty ok. We haven't discussed what we'll do when the person whose name is on the credit card retires - I guess we'll burn that bridge when we get to it? Unfortunately beyond that I can't be of much help, as we haven't found a satisfactory way to make use of the things we'd really like, such as Steam, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. I hope that's at least a little useful. I am also interested in seeing what others are doing. Megan On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 11:11 AM, Jonathan Rochkind <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Whether it's Amazon AWS, or Yahoo BOSS, or JournalTOCs, or almost anything > else -- there are a variety of API's that library software wants to use, > which require registering an account to use. > > They may or may not be free, sometimes they require a credit card attached > too. > > Most of them assume that an individual person is creating an account, the > account will be in that individual's name, with an email address, etc. > > This isn't quite right for a business or organization, like the library, > right? What if that person leaves the organization? But all this existing > software is using API keys attached to 'their' account? Or what if the > person doesn't leave, but responsibilities for monitoring emails from the > vendor (sent to that account) change? And even worse if there's an > institutional credit card attached to that account. > > I am interested in hearing solutions or approaches that people have > ACTUALLY tried to deal with this problem, and how well they have worked. > > I am NOT particularly interested in "Well, you could try X or Y"; I can > think of a bunch of things I _could_ try myself, each with their potential > strengths and weaknesses. I am interested in hearing about what people > actually HAVE tried or done, and how well it has worked. > > Has anyone found a way to deal with this issue, other than having each API > registered to an account belonging to whatever individual staff happened to > be dealing with it that day? > > Thanks for any advice. > -- Megan O'Neill Kudzia Web Services & Emerging Technologies Librarian Stockwell-Mudd Library Albion College 602 E. Cass St. Albion, MI 49224