“While many libraries lend out electronic books for those who already have a tablet or e-reader, a Wisconsin library is cranking the digital lending up a notch,” Ina Fried reports for AllThingsD.
“The Eau Claire, Wis., library is lending out iPads,” Fried reports. “Some of the iPads are loaned for a week at a time, while others are offered for four hours at a time for use within the library.”
Fried reports, “Each tablet is loaded with 1,000 books and 10 audiobooks, as well as various apps and Web site links. In all, the library has 44 iPads to lend.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
an iPad IS a library of the world.
The overdue fees and lost iPad replacement penalties must be a bitch. Users may have to supply a credit card number and/or deposit to walk out of the library with an iPad.
If one can afford to purchase an iPad there is no good reason for a citizen to borrow one from the library. If one cannot afford to purchase an iPad these is too great a financial risk of losing an iPad or returning a damaged iPad. The whole program seems poorly thought out.
As a librarian, I find that not everyone who can afford an iPad actually buys one. We loan iPads in our library for those who wish to read our periodicals on them, as well as to try out what it feels like to sit with one and actually use it for a couple of hours. Best Buy or other retailers are not set up for this.
We loan Nooks and will soon loan Kindles. This is how patrons want to access their reading materials these days. As for the poorly thought out part, once upon a time VHS tapes cost $60 or $70, and libraries loaned them out as well. Most patrons are careful with library materials, and we have an sign out sheet with a clearly spelled out replacement policy in case of damage. No problems yet. Overdue fees, btw, are one dollar a day for Nooks. Not a bitch. If someone is uncomfortable with our policy, we have plenty of books for them to borrow.
Why guess at how bad it must be? The referenced article has a link to the actual program guide. Two clicks and a little bit of reading is all it takes to be informed.
How ’bout that. Jim? Just as I suspected the patron is ultimately responsible for theft, loss, or damage. Therefore, those patrons who are financially disadvantaged (i.e. without home owner’s or renter’s insurance) are persons most likely to be severely penalized for failure to return an iPad or do return a damage iPad.
Local crackheads and other ne’er-do-wells could easily or fraudulently apply for a library card and abscond with an iPad, leaving taxpayers holding the bag and denying access to honest citizens. Several tens DVDs from our local library were found for sale at a local pawn shop. Your faith in human behavior is naive at best, misguided at worst.
I guess you have never hired a car? Cars cost a lot more than iPads! Loss and damage is what insurance companies are for. But I don’t hear of many joy-riding incidents with rental cars.
The library will work out a deal with its insurance company, the monthly premium could be divided by 44 and prorated out between the weekly and 4-hourly lends. A fee can be charged to cover that. (we already pay 2 euro per DVD. I could see paying 12 to borrow an iPad for a week.
That covers the iPads, but you can still bet the library will recover loss or damage from the borrower, at least to the tune of it’s excess payments in the event a claim must be made. Libraries already have all the verified contact details of borrowers on file, and they will likely take CC details as well.
“I guess you have never hired a car?”
You would be 100% incorrect. Additionally, what is the relationship between one’s individual experience with renting automobiles and the article?
“Cars cost a lot more than iPads!”
No sh*t!
“Loss and damage is what insurance companies are for.”
Brilliant! As a taxpayer I am not so willing to pay insurance for losses that are perfectly avoidable. I would prefer a nonrefundable deposit by the patron for loss, theft, or damage. If the patron has home or renter’s insurance let them foot the bill, not the taxpayer. Let the patron demonstrate proof of insurance first.
“But I don’t hear of many joy-riding incidents with rental cars.”
Your ignorance is noted.
“The library will work out a deal with its insurance company, the monthly premium could be divided by 44 and prorated out between the weekly and 4-hourly lends. A fee can be charged to cover that. (we already pay 2 euro per DVD. I could see paying 12 to borrow an iPad for a week.”
Substitute taxpayer for library.
“That covers the iPads, but you can still bet the library will recover loss or damage from the borrower, at least to the tune of it’s excess payments in the event a claim must be made.”
Unless said patron is impoverished or said patron falsely misrepresented himself or herself.
“Libraries already have all the verified contact details of borrowers on file, and they will likely take CC details as well.”
“All”, surely you jest. So citizens without credit cards are discriminated against. You heartless bastard.
Wouldn’t it be far more cost-effective for a library to just lend out cheap Kindles?
MacFreek, the world is not as evil as you apparently believe it to be. Perhaps, that (and your nom de plume) speak more about yourself and your distorted perceptions than of the facts. “counterproductive” and “a librarian”, both, clearly and rationally stated the reality of the situation. If you were to stop watching the sensationalized “news” and move to a rural town, you’d be overwhelmed by the reality of the vast majority of the world. A close friend lives in a town where the doors on the house are rarely locked (most don’t know where the key is anyway), and the cars are parked with the keys in the ignition (so they don’t lose them, too). In the past 50 years, there has never been a car theft, and the only home invasions were from the occasional drunk walking into the wrong house. I work in retail, and have sold items on the promise they will come back later that day and pay me. I’ve never been disapointed.
Our libraries are suffering financially from political pandering to the paranoid voters as money is needlessly funneled towards “terrorism prevention” when it should go towards societal strengthening such as education, libraries and the arts. If you would visit libraries more often, you would learn from numerous undergraduate studies that rats, when placed in overpopulated areas, act the same way people do in cities. This includes theft, rape, physical abuse and general paranoia. So, don’t blame the librarians or the iPad on your delusions of potential thefts, it’s your own paranoia and the overwhelming influences of the shallow city folk surrounding you. Now, where did I put my keys…?
Thank you for the effusive effluence of irrelevant blather and specious rationalizations. How on earth did you make the illogical leap from my negative appraisal of one library to my present residence, mental status, and choice of news sources, much less issues of international terrorism and invalid scientific studies? If you want to be taken seriously as an intelligent and thoughtful person you should avoid straw man arguments, petty insults, and unsubstantiated assertions.
MacFreak:
I doubt many crackheads will abscond with an iPad – for they won’t know what abscond means… what’s with the high-brow vocabulary?
While I often enjoy reading the cynical point of view (hence my frequent visits to MDN), too much thesaurus laden scorn, becomes drudgery for the optic nerve (oops! – me too!)
One does not need to know the definition of abscond, one only must be willing to do the deed.
“High brow vocabulary”? You may want to consider broadening your social circle.
I think you may mean “drudgery for the frontal lobe and/or occipital lobe”, the optic nerve is impervious to cognitive function, emotional impulses, or reading comprehension.
May be your best read I have read…
An all around well thought out piece!!
Si te interesa tener un Ipad, pero sin pagar nada puedes utilizar esta pagina ipad gratis