10 Apr 11 iPods in School Libraries

Although many (if not most) middle and high school libraries check-out audio books on iPods and mp3 players, many (if not most) do not allow personal use of these devices within the library.  In March 2010, New Hampshire school librarians were surveyed on the subject.  Of the sixteen librarians who responded to the NH School Library Media Association listserv survey, eight said that iPod music listening was allowed and eight said that it wasn’t. Interestingly, two of the eight libraries that did not allow iPods were located in schools that allowed their use during study halls elsewhere in the school building. In these odd situations, and especially if the library circulates iPods, it would seem that such policies should perhaps be reexamined. Here’s why:

• If libraries check-out to students the very device they ban, then library policy makers seem to be making a choice to be inconsistent.  After all, even though library iPods most likely contain only audio books and educational movies and podcasts, so could a personal iPod. Would it be unacceptable for a student to listen to a podcast like CNN Student News or an Overdrive audio book during a study hall visit to the library?  It’s hard to imagine a librarian not allowing a student to read a book checked-out from another library during such a visit.  Yet, for digital content, that’s essentially what a ban on personal iPods could accomplish.
• Of course students using personal iPods will most likely be listening to music and not a news podcast. And it is for this reason, perhaps, that some libraries have banned the devices. It could be debated whether music listening interferes with homework completion and academic productivity.  But this point about music is less debatable:  In at least some libraries that currently ban iPods, students are still listening to music.  While working on school computers, many students access music stored on their network drive or on a portable flash drive. And since it is nearly impossible to determine if computer headphone use is for music listening or for project purposes, allowing computer listening but not iPod listening also seems to lack consistency.

By no means do these two bullets address all angles of the debate. They do nonetheless list some inconsistencies that might be present within some school library policies. And while every community is different and every school library serves different stakeholders, in their organization most libraries try to be the same thing: logical and consistent.  Books, for example, are consistently shelved according to the logical Dewey numbering system; OPACs and databases allow for using boolean logic and return consistent search results; and library websites provide a logical path of links to consistently reliable information resources. Because policies are designed in different schools with different constituencies and different concerns, it might not be easy (or even possible) for library iPod policies to be logical and consistent.  But if it is possible, then reexamining policy seems warranted.