The iPod Experiments

No other consumer electronic device has created such an impact on popular culture in recent years as the Apple iPod. Since iPod's release in November 2001, music fans have been able to carry upwards of 15,000 song files on those sleek devices with their trendy white headphones. Over ten million iPods have been sold—nearly half of them in the last three months of 2004. A nationwide survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found more than 22 million U.S. adults—approximately 11 percent of the population over age 18—have an iPod or another version of anMP3 player. iPods are hot, so we must look to them if we want to meet users at their technological edge.

Indeed, iPods are penetrating the larger educational world. Drexel University, Philadelphia, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, is providing education students with iPods in an experiment to "evaluate the educational potential of the devices" and will even test "audio blogging" and "podcasts" of lectures. (Podcasts let consumers listen to audio content at their convenience on their iPod or another MP3-enabled audio player. For more, see "Libraries Get Podcasting," p. 24.)

Is there potential for a mass storage device in libraries? Are librarians using iPods? Yes, and in some surprising ways.

Baylor University Fine Arts Library, Waco, TX, is circulating 12 iPods loaded with the course reserves for music classes. Sha Towers, music and fine arts librarian, notes that, "with the iPods, students can listen while walking between classes or at other times when being in the library or logged on to a computer would not be possible."

Funded by the Library Fellows, the project will expand next semester, according to Tim Logan, director of Baylor's electronic libraries. "Every iPod (40GB 4GL models) has all of the audio reserves for all of the music classes for the entire semester. Our management system creates Notes files for the iPod, listing the names of audio tracks, with clickable links to the appropriate audio track on the iPod."

Some libraries are circulating iPods to enhance and improve access to library services. The Duke Divinity School Library, Durham, NC, has launched a project that puts audio instructions for using two electronic tools (Bibleworks and the ATLA Religions Database) and for navigating the print exegesis tools (Bible analysis and interpretation) in the Reference Room. "Since the librarians only work eight to five, Monday through Friday, and the library is open additional hours, we decided to record some instructions,"said Andrew Keck, Duke's electronic services librarian. Librarians like the iPod feature that alters playback speed (when saved in audiobook format), so that time-starved students can listen to a lecture at a faster rate. "Conversely, our students who work with English as a second language can slow things down," says Keck.

To expand the project, more content may be added. Because the iPods will be available in a manner similar to existing reserve materials, Divinity School faculty and staff will be encouraged to add other audio material.

Dorothy Grazier, library media specialist at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH, wants to purchase iPod Shuffles and audiobooks for her students. Along with two library assistants, she applied for a state grantto get the project off the ground. "We had to wait for a grant opportunity and had been planning on regular iPods for audio," Grazier says. "But then the Shuffle came out—cheaper, as much memory as we need for a single audiobook."

Winnacunnet's library will offer Shuffles with recorded books to support those students who want to listen to the book while reading it. According to Grazier, this will allow "students whose mental abilities are stronger than their reading abilities to take a more challenging class."

Grazier also sees a "wow" factor with this initiative. Students who may be working on improving reading skills will still be "considered cool because of the technology," says Grazier.

The iPods will be filled with books downloaded from sites like Audible.com as needed, without the time involved in ordering actual CDs or audiocassettes. "Our classes 'Madness in Literature' and 'Best Sellers' change required readings from year to year. This will allow for more flexibility as the downloaded titles are less expensive than tape or CD," Grazier observes.

South Huntington Library, NY, became one of the first public libraries to circulate iPods, specifically the iPod Shuffle. Mentioned on Engadget Weblog, the news spread quickly to other blogs and even caught the interest of mainstream publications like the New York Times and Wired. (See also Front Desk, LJ 4/1/05, p. 15.)

Assistant Director Joseph Latini reports that the library purchased ten devices, six 1GB iPod shuffles ($149 each), the equivalent of a 16-hour audiobook, and four 512MB devices ($99 each), with eight-hour capacities. Titles come from the Apple iTunes site via Audible.com.

The library circulates the iPods in a camera-style case with a car adaptor, a small "how-to" sheet created by the library, a Tunecast FM transmitter, a charger, and a ministereo connector. The Shuffles circulate for 21 days with a $1-a-day overdue fine.

As to theft, Latini said that the library uses video cameras in all areas but no longer puts cases on everything in the AV area. The same goes for the Shuffles: "If it doesn't come back, it's $150 to replace it."

How did this initiative come about? "Our director," Latini says, "is very cutting-edge." Observes Director Ken Weil, "We want to provide another way for people to take out audiobooks that would be more convenient and timely. And reduce costs."

Weil and Latini planned extensively and experimented before offering the Shuffles. To test the devices, they encouraged both staff and the board to take them out. Allowing staff hands-on access also creates a sense of familiarity when dealing with a relatively new technology.

"Because it's so new we had to figure out how to catalog the audiobook on the Shuffle, get it into the public catalog, and allow people to place reserves," Weil says. "There was no bib record to attach to iPods. We had to learn as we went along." Getting them into the public catalog is important since "that's how the public finds out what we have." Wired's report actually linked to the library's catalog record of iPod Shuffles.

For any technology-based initiative, especially those on the cutting edge, Weil offers this advice: "You have to risk having something not work…. Don't be afraid to fail."

Libraries have been circulating audio players for years. Kalamazoo Public Library, MI, began an audio program with Audible.com in 2002. King County Library System, WA, circulates Rio500 players. Participants in the ListenIllinois and ListenOhio projects circulate Otis players and other similar MP3 devices. But when iPod met the library, the news seemed to travel faster and more folks noticed. "We even heard from CNN and a newspaper in Japan," Latini says.

"The iPod is a hip, ingenious product. iPod is the Beatles right now—we chose the right product," Latini says, and Weil agrees: "People know what the iPod is, other brands aren't known as well. Some people don't know what an MP3 is."

Beyond the trendiness factor, some believe it's a simple, cost-effective solution. "Duke has bought into iPods in a big way," Keck states. "In many ways, it's easier and cheaper for the library to loan a few iPods loaded with the licensed and 'home-grown' content than for every student to have an iPod for which content must be separately licensed and loaded."

Winnacunnet High's Grazier agrees and praises the Shuffle, which is "less expensive and thus cheaper for us to purchase. It's also cheap enough to hold a student accountable if lost or damaged."

Content is a factor as well. Though Recorded Books (through OCLC's netLibrary) and OverDrive both offer downloadable audio, they don't support iPod devices. Audible.com is iPod compatible and "has many titles for us to download."

There are obstacles to deal with when considering the devices for libraries. Keck relates that the librarians at Duke quickly decided that checking-out the Apple ear buds was probably not very sanitary and could actually discourage use. "We had some old clunky 'media center' headphones, but our student workers laughed so hard when they saw the giant headphones and the smaller iPod." Keck says. "We had to purchase smaller, 'cooler' headphones."

Weil recognizes that such cutting-edge innovation "would not be for everybody. It would take time to adjust to new technology." And what if the Shuffle is returned to the library blank or filled with other content? "Someone could erase it, sure," Weil says. "But it's easy to correct—just plug it in and reload it with the audiobook files."

Staff time is a concern. Jerry Kuntz, electronic resources consultant at the Ramapo-Catskill Library System, Middletown, NY, recently commented on web4lib that circulating iPods "is a great service, but one that it is not scalable to larger libraries because of the staff time needed: staff must download the titles from the library's iTunes account themselves…to a library PC and then transfer the files to library-owned iPods." Other tasks come into play as well: taking deposits, cleaning headphones, etc. "There's no way a larger library—or even a small library with tight staffing—can support this service model."

Interoperability is another issue. Kuntz and members of NYLINE, the New York State Library email discussion group, are lobbying to get Apple to create partnerships with the digital audiobook companies already in the library market, like OverDrive or Recorded Books, which currently do not support the iPod.

The relationship between the iPod and libraries is off and running. All it needs is more librarians recognizing more uses for the devices. An art library might circulate an iPod Photo with digitized images to support an art history course. With the included cable, the artwork could be reviewed on practically any television. Could libraries also give users a chance to load a circulating iPod via iTunes in the library? Talk about user-centered: Here's an iPod Shuffle and a library of 100 songs; fill it with what you'd like to hear.

Whatever happens, this seems like a match made in heaven. Winnacunnet High's Grazier puts it simply: "iPods and libraries are both really cool."