Well, not putting the device upside down (I don't see any reason for putting a device screen-down on a flat surface, either), rather in a pocket of a backpack. Same pocket my HP48 lived in happily for years. But the textbooks inside the backpack did a number on the HP49+. Short of mounting "armor" on it, or sliding it into a hard case, there's really nothing convenient to be done when you need to carry such a device around with books.