Comments on: Page Number Versus Position on Kindle

By: Michael Morana

Michael Morana — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 17:00:36 +0000

A professor of mine required that I use MLA citation for books that I was reading off my Kindle.
My solution to the problem is one that can be useful sometimes but not everytime.
If the book is available as a book preview on Google Books, you can search for text in the book and Google Books will give you the page.

By: willd

willd — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:15:11 +0000

Thanks Lauryn! Have you seen the suggested citation format from the APA? I wonder if the calculation method will ever work well enough for the academic world… Have you run your approach past your professor yet? BTW, your direct experience with this problem is very enlightening to read about!

By: Lauryn

Lauryn — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:02:05 +0000

Hi,

So I’m using the kindle in place of an actual book in one of my classes and my professor listed the chapter titles and the page numbers of the book. At first I tried to go through a whole series of calculations but i noticed that my kindle on the first page of the chapter which is supposed to be pg. 49 gave me the location of 489-94. After trying to figure out which page correlated at the text size I was using to the actual paper book used in class I discovered that the location numbers were probably supposed to stand for 489-494. Once I discovered this I continued to go through the chapter and see if my marks for where each page should stop and start matched the changing locations and it did. I determined that for every 1.5 pages of my kindle 2 there would be 1 page of the real book. Page 50 in the real book would start at location 494-502 and then would continue to location number 502-09 or 502-509. The first two digits of the location number for the entire book on my kindle have so far matched with the page numbers for the actual book. The last number which I’m assuming has something to do with the formatting of the kindle has to do with where in the page the kindle had to cut for the text size to move to the next page. They split the page into 9 sections. if a cite lies in section 523-30 it means that in a the real book of the same exact edition and copy the page where the information found lies from 3/9′s of the way through pg 52 to the beginning of pg 53. I’ve assumed that the last location in the range of numbers is likely the last line of the of the first pg listed or the first line of the last pg given. I havn’t proven this to work for all my books yet but if it does i’ll let you all know.

By: SIDNEY

SIDNEY — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:35:34 +0000

Bem, pessoal, se eles vão publicar livros em Português, eles terão necessariamente quem leia este texto para eles. Eu tenho o Kindle for osx e não o aparelho. Comprei um primeiro livro para testar o uso e se eu soubesse que uma coisa tão básica para referenciação como a correspondência entre o número de páginas da página no Kindle e o da edição impressa não seria atendida, eu não teria gastado meu suado dinheirinho de professor universitário. Bom, mas a menos que a Amazon conserte esse furo, não gastarei mais meu dinheiro com isso. Só espero que o iPad trate essa questão de forma correta.

[Ed. Note: Here is a translation from Google Translate: "Well, folks, if they will publish books in Portuguese, they will necessarily who read this text to them. I got the Kindle for osx and not the device. I bought a book first to test the use and if I knew that something as basic as referencing the correlation between the number of pages on the Kindle page and the printed edition would not be met, I would not have spent my hard-earned money as a university professor. Good, but unless the Amazon fix that hole, it will not spend my money on it. I just hope that the iPad treat this issue properly."]

Thanks for the comment, Sidney!

By: Lucas

Lucas — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:56:22 +0000

or, you can just search the page you want to reference in google books, and fill out the mla citation using the page number ect. provided in the google books copy.

By: willd

willd — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:25:29 +0000

Very useful idea, Dana. How does the Direct Verse Jump work on the Kindle?

By: willd

willd — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:24:02 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Sandy. If the instructor had a copy of the Kindle book, wouldn’t a reference to the “location” number provided by amazon be sufficient? Since everyone can now see those position numbers by loading Kindle for PC (not sure of the status for Mac), wouldn’t this suffice?

By: sandy price

sandy price — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:18:47 +0000

I am a college instructor, and teach a couple of online courses. I require my students to cite to page numbers. The reason is two-fold. First is Michele’s problem – the ability to go back to the “book” to read what the professor and other students are referring to. The second reason is that citations help me believe the students are reading, and not simply paraphrasing class discussion into their homework assignments. Right now I am struggling with a poor overseas student who is awaiting the arrival of a textbook. We’ve tried finding page numbers in Google Book, but Google Book doesn’t have all the pages available for viewing, so he can’t plug in his quote and necessarily pull up the page. Page numbers are the standard citation format for all academia, and unless and until that changes, Amazon really needs to find a way to add pagination to its product.

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:37:00 +0000

@Anthony,

I use 3 search friendly Bibles on my Kindle… The Direct Verse Jump is VERY helpful.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VWKFJ6/ref=docs-os-doi_0 for the WEB Bible

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002V1I4I6/ref=docs-os-doi_0 for the NET Bible

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002TG4P8Q/ref=docs-os-doi_0 for the KJV Bible

After learning the abbreviations for all the books, I can flip through my Kindle Bibles faster than a paper Bible.

I hope this helps.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:30:50 +0000

Well, I just received my new kindle and I am so disappointed! I love the screen and how the text looks. But the navigation stinks! The navigation through the books with location in lieu on page number is insane and impossible to make sense of when trying to find a reference such as Romans 1:5 forget, impossible. Also when you bookmark it just bookmarks a location and when I am reading there is no reference on top in regards to where I am, what book, what chapter what page.. uuuuuuuuugh. insanity. This may take me a long time to get used to or I just might return it and go back to paper.