While noted blogger and speaker David Lee King has recently talked about “quite a few uses for an iPad in a library setting,” I’m wondering if its multiple uses completely undermines its usefulness as a serious reading tool.  After all, unlike Amazon’s Kindle, which in its simplicity provides a more traditional and intimate reading experience, the iPad is loaded with distractions: Safari, YouTube, iTunes, and of course the App Store.  In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, an author laments the Internet’s constant distractions and interruptions and asks, “Does the Internet Make You Dumber?”  Perhaps the same could be asked of the iPad.  Is the App Store just one more thing promoting a wide-spread turn toward shallow thinking?

Modern libraries are, of course, about much more than books.  I’ve argued, in fact, that libraries should have widespread computers and technology.  Yet, there is definitely a difference between technology for productivity purposes and technology for content consumption purposes.   The Tech Guy Leo Laporte talks about iPads as replacements for entertainment tools, but not computers.  I think he’s right.  My iPad does a lot, but it’s a far cry from my laptop.  That means that the iPad is not a computer but is much more than an ebook reader.  And this, in my view, makes it an awkward fit for a library.

As an educational tool, the iPad’s potential is enormous.  The number of apps in the App Store is growing at an amazing rate.  But, I have to wonder if the educational tool can be justified as a library tool.  Several questions need answering:  Do libraries want to provide this type of entertainment tool, even if it has educational use?  If so, will it be loaned or used strictly in-house?  Would patrons be permitted to add content and apps?  If so, what types?  If not, how could that be prevented?  What content will the library provide? Fiction books?  If so, the iPad would amount to a really costly ereader.  Could the iPad contain reference sources and act as a portable reference collection?  The answer to this is, perhaps in the future, but not presently, as neither the iBooks Store nor the Kindle Store offer many reference titles.  And one final question (from the Library Law Blog): Do prohibitions against lending the Apple software even allow for library usage?

Library mission statements often talk about meeting patron “recreational needs,” “promoting life-long learning,” and providing “access to modern technology.”  Maybe in this language librarians can find support for iPad use.  And maybe I’m just looking at this subject way too narrowly.  As of right now, I’m really not sure.

kindle2

Here’s what I knew: Amazon’s Kindle 2, with the ability to make any book large-print and a text-to-speech feature for some books, is a powerful new tool for school libraries attempting to serve a diverse student body. The device could certainly help meet the needs of struggling readers and students with vision problems, for example. Further, with reasonably priced downloadable content from amazon and many classics freely available on-demand from manybooks.net and other sites, the Kindle could reduce a library’s reliance on a slow inter-library-loan process and thereby benefit all students.

Here’s what I now know: When attempting to integrate Kindles into a school library program you’ll likely face some challenges. Most vexing, for me, has been getting content onto the device. Technically this is easy, but buying content is the problem. Unlike other purchases at amazon (like the Kindle device itself, for example), all digital content must be tied to a credit card. A credit card is something, I bet, that most schools don’t use. Instead, they probably have a corporate account at amazon, which allows for a regular purchase-order approach to buying. If a school employee wants Kindle content, then, a personal amazon account would be needed. This, of course, poses at least one significant problem: All content would be tied to the buyer’s account and could only be managed by the buyer. Now, from within one’s amazon account, content can be downloaded to a computer and then synced with a Kindle via USB, but this could lead to a file swapping nightmare–not to mention copyright issues. While amazon did tell me via email support that digital content can be purchased with gift cards, I called them and pointed out that in order for a gift card to be redeamed, it needs to be tied to a credit card account, which brings me back to the original problem. Right now the only solution seems to be an institutional credit card that could be used for establishing an individual library Kindle account. It’d be nice if amazon followed Apple’s model in the iTunes store, where a personal credit card can be deactivated from an account once sufficient gift-card credit has been added to the account. (Purchase orders can be used to buy gift cards). That way a library account truly belonging to the school could be easily created.