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When you say “unequal access to the Internet,” you do not disclose how it is unequal. And I’ll assume it’s the key to the so-called digital divide, so it must be important. Hazarding a guess, I’ll assume convicted sex offenders ordered to stay out of public libraries cannot access public library computers, but so far as I know, everyone else can. So would you please tell us how you define unequal access and perhaps provide a few examples? Thank you.

Public computers are available in other locations, by the way, like Kinkos, so please explain why people cannot access e-government and the like from those locations.

Also, you say, “this amounts to an unfunded mandate.” What does? E-government? Please elaborate. Thanks again.

Dan, my point was to discuss ALA’s statement regarding e-government by including an anecdote about my own work, not starting a discussion about unequal access or sex offenders in the library.

Having places where computers are only available for a fee means that people who cannot afford them cannot access things that are only available via the internet. People who do not have their own computers, who do not have a stable residences where they could attain their own personal internet access, or who lack the skillset required to use a computer without assistance are all affected by the digital divide. If the government starts putting services online that require people to have internet access and computer skills to access them, then one would hope they would have some sort of plan for giving access and/or training to people lacking these resources. Currently they say “go to your public library” but there is no mechanism in place assuring that any public library in the US will have computers + access + training/classes for people. Most of them do, but this is almost a happy accident and not a concerted plan.

The digital divide is not a library-only issue, but as libraries are more and more becoming the go-to place where people without their own computers or internet access are referred to, it’s important that it’s quite clear how they are becoming an integral part of what is required for e-government to work properly.

Well, I have to agree with you.

This digital divide is a serious problem; accessing the internet and having the skills to use it are not only critical to a democracy, but now it is a matter of survival. Many companies require an online application for all positions. People now need to get online to work out medical benefits, veteran’s benefits, insurance, etc. They need to figure out Microsoft Word and type up their resume, too. I worked in a poor area where many people did not have a computer, or their computer was not working and they didn’t have the money to fix it. Yes, they were lucky to have a local library branch with six public computers, but they only got an hour on the computer a day, with no staff available to help them. For a person who struggles to fill out an long online form, or type a resume, that is often not enough time. The libraries need support for more computers, more staff to help, and more computer classes.

Nice post. Important topic. Keep’em coming.

Threaten to implement 802.16 (WiMAX) or 3g and take a Clearwire rep to lunch. That usually wakes up the cable and traditional telecomm folks. The bigger picture, though, is that the pols need to be reminded that lack of broadband is an impediment to business and economic growth. They’ll never do it just for libraries. This is certainly one case where de-regulation had the opposite effect than the one intended.

Absolutely correct! We can’t keep our patrons connected if the bandwidth is so narrow that even a t-1 looks feels like a dial-up. The next great library problem.

Hey Jessamyn -

I was there during the dial-up era, and remember the agony of being stuck behind a 56k line when the folks at the U had T-1 or T-3 or better.

The only way to manage the frustration was to build out powerful services that were hosted at the fast end of the connection that either provided fast remote search (WAIS) or compact navigation (Gopher) to reduce some of the hassle factor of not having infinite bandwidth on demand.

The modern equivalent of this is the user experience of people using cell phones. My Blackberry has a browser experience reminiscent of 1993 using lynx, with dirt simple navigation and large parts of the net that are totally unreachable. What has changed, though, is that people who are smart are starting to design versions of their sites that actually work well on low bandwidth minimalist screen pessimal internet connections and get the work done that you need to get done.

I made a list at
http://www.monkey.org/~emv/m
of all of the “mobile” versions of sites I have found. There are precious few library catalogs there, though there should be more. With the advent of the iPhone more and more people have this minimalist sensibility, and if you focused your efforts on these needs you’d be doing the dial-up part of your patron base a service.

I raise my hand as an offender here—LibraryThing uses a fair amount a Ajax. Here’s a quick defense.

While I can understand your frustration that getting the page used to mean the end, where it might just be the beginning now, something is still usually better than nothing. Without Ajax, lots of pages just wouldn’t load until everything was “done,” and usability test show that the appearance of speed is even better than speed. (Show someone a blank page and ten seconds later an image, and they think it’s slower than if you show than if you take fifteen seconds to show the same image but you build the image in front of their eyes.)

Also, the solution has clearly shifted away from site developers. According to Google Analytics, LibraryThing has 5% dialup users. That’s partially a self-fulfilling thing, but it’s still pretty stark.

[…] » MooWee Plays Internet TV with Your Wii Tech Web Daily: Just another Tech News Blog wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerpt[W]e’re lagging in new applications of the Internet that depend on high speed. France leads the world in the number of subscribers to Internet TV; the United States isn’t even in the top 10. What happened to America’s Internet lead? … […]

Don’t get me wrong Tim, I love Ajax-based sites. But, to be fair, you’re a vendor and can decide that you’ll lose the bottom 5% of potential customers (or whatever the numbers work out to) but if you’re the public library, you can’t or really really shouldn’t. This is sort of far-afield from my original topic, but it’s an interesting side note. Also I think web statistics regarding dial-up users are suspect. How many LT users check LT from the library but also sometimes from home, or how many potential LT users just don’t bother because they’re on dial-up?

Again I don’t think LT is *in any way* culpable for any of this, just pointing out that it’s a terribly sticky situation, made worse by lack of knowledge of how to fix it and in many cases lack of ability to do anything at all. You and I both are in the big area of the Northeast that Verizon is trying like mad to divest itself of and for now they’re building out NOTHING because they’re preparing for and/or hoping for a buy-out

Hi Jessamyn,
I was asked by VLA to attend a pre-conference telecommunications presentation before ALA in June. As chapter councilor it made sense to send me, since I’d be there anyway. But I’m not sure I was the best representative for Vermont. I sat and politely listened to a half dozen presenters talk on and on about how they worked to improve broadband coverage in their states. Every presenter had a different strategy: coalitions, lobbying, cooperating with state officials, and consortium building. By far the most impressive report came from Kentucky where the effort was lead by the business community. In fact, libraries were not even in the mix there, although incidentally the infrastructure improvements demanded by the business community did benefit the libraries. My discomfort increased as the day went on and reached a peak when I stood and asked the question, “Do libraries even need a place at this table? It appears economic needs drive infrastructure development.” Well…as you can imagine that comment went over like a lead balloon! But I still don’t know how much we can or should do towards improving access. I know that in Vermont we have communities with little business activity, mostly in the northeast kingdom, and perhaps libraries can help rattle the cage for more access but in fact libraries in those places aren’t in any position of power. I wonder if any of us are in a powerful enough position to lobby for more boadband coverage.
Nancy
PS After attending two ALA conferences I totally understand your frustration with the system!

There is actually a fairly complex history to how and why public libraries, schools and municipalities in VT got broadband cable access (from a specific vendor). You might try the folks in the Telecommunications Division of the Public Service Dept. (http://publicservice.vermont.gov/divisions/telecom.html) to get a detailed story

Thanks Shelia — when I spoke to Howard Dean he took most of the credit for this, but I knew there was a lot more involved in it than just that.

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This man’s blog is astounding — a mix of flowers and citation analysis! Thanks for passing this one along!

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One obvious example of a computer game that could be useful to older adults: typing tutors. For the shifting industry sector, I think a typing tutor could be a great boon (eg. shifting from factory work to call-centre work would require some typing proficiency).

I’ve also heard tell of the Wii being interesting to (some) older adults. Folks who used to bowl or play tennis can enjoy their favorite sports without the sports injuries that go with them.

I have to say though, that when I’m on my gaming fetishes (there’s been a recent one, which explains my lack of blogging), I feel less productive. It’s also hard to pin-point precisely what the learning benefits of gaming are. Can’t say my Diablo stint has really done that much for me. Civilization was great for learning the first time around — now it’s just a time-waster.

That said, you could say the same about most recreational books as well. It’s just that I seem to be more willing to avoid [what I consider] fluff when it comes to books. Games have more an addictive feel, leaving me a bit “fast-food-ish” when I’m done. Thank goodness I’ve beaten Diablo and can now get on with my stinking life. :)

I got my mother into Yahoogames, The Sims and a few other point and click type games a few years back. I loved the familiarity they gave her with using interfaces - if she’s confronted by a non-standard interface, she no longer freezes. She uses the mouse better. She’s faster with everything. That may have come with time, but the games made it all easier.

I can tell you that plenty of the younger new Canadians at my local public library learned how to work a computer by watching their friends play various games on the machines in the library. Sure it might not be perfect but they are now ready to use the computers to do research and email thanks to their game playing lessons.

We sometimes use casual games like Solitaire or memory match or an online paint by numbers or Jigzone as a way to get some older adults to practice their mouse skills. We also explain WHY we’re having them play the games and try to find something that appeals to them. No point forcing them to play Solitaire if they’ve never played it before and hate it, especially since people generally learn better when they expect that knowledge to be useful. (It’s the brain efficiency thing once you get older. You don’t form those neural pathways for everything you do anymore like you did as a kid–you’re most likely to easily store and retrieve information you know you’ll use. See? You aren’t getting dumber. Your brain is getting more efficient!)

Anyways, I think the article was interesting but confusing, as it seemed to wander through a bunch of different types of technology literacy training, talking about games but then going on to computer hardware and reprogramming classes… It could have used more focus.

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The debates were on CNN. I don’t think they aired live on YouTube.

As I work my way through Infopeople’s “23 Web 2.0 Things Challenge” I am struck by yet another reason the divide is “still” with us - it is widening. The whole 2.0 phenomenon is rapidly creating a divide (or divides) of its own, and one that people without easy Internet access are going to be even less able to cross. For the technorati and the geeki it is easy to forget that a great majority of people are only now connecting with these tools and that many others are still working their way through 1.0. To focus so much attention on these new tools is to lose perspective and connection with our very wide and technologically diverse patron base.

I wrote something along the same lines yesterday regarding Coburn and his demand that the Census be online.

Good point matt, I made my post more clear.

Pardon my vent here, but I feel the need to respond to your observations about technostress. I sense some frustration on your part with library staff who are not the technocheerleaders we should be. While I agree that an upbeat “we can do this” approach works better then a “computers are hard” approach, what I think is also going on is frustration on the part of frontline staff who are completely ignored in large bureaucracies when it comes to making decisions about what type of technology is implemented. For example, we got a new phone system that is like a giant step backward in phone technology. It may be helpful in large corporations where people work all day at one cubicle, chained to a desk, but it does NOT work in a library branch where staff is constantly on the move, helping out the public or just seeking an empty computer (because we don’t have enough to go around). Transferring calls is a byzantine endeavor. The system goes down frequently, and the end result is that staff look like idiots in front of customers when we drop calls, and appear to be Luddites when we report the problems to the higher ups. Oh and did I mention that the voice quality is horrible and I have to ask people to constantly repeat themselves over the phome because I cannot understand what they are saying? These types of situations are repeated over and over again, with our online catalog, our internet queuing software, etc. Lots of bugs and quirks and malfunctions. I get TIRED of being cheerful about technology that just does not cut it, but feel like if I say anything then I am one of those dinosaurs who is part of the problem. We need to address the digital divide between the decision makers and the frontline staff in our organizations.

[…] Yahoo Link to Article youtube why the digital divide is a library issue » Posted at librarian.net on Wednesday, July 25, 2007 why the digital divide is a library issue July 25th, 2007 | Posted in access | No Comments » tags: access, broadband, cipa, demographics, digitaldivide, erate I skipped the debates that were on YouTube. I’m politically active generally, but I don’t get more or less active during election years. However, this event is as good a time View Entire Article » […]

Actually Chris that’s a good point — I think technostress works both ways. For a chapter I wrote on it, I talked about how usually it’s pressure to do better with technology than people feel trained or prepared for that leads to a lot of the (in my experience) “computers are hard” mentality. I think a lot of workplace technostress is actually a sign of poor management than poor technology.

While I don’t think it’s anyone’s responsibility to be cheerful about it, I think there’s a difference between saying “our power sometimes surges here, you might not want to plug your laptop in it without a surge protector” (state problem, state approach, offer solution) and “don’t plug in your laptop, it might blow up” (hyperbole, no clear solution, dead end).

My specific example was highlighting the librarian/patron problems but it’s clear that there are librarian/management issues that are similar (librarian in the middle with people who don’t know as much as her on either end) and that also need to be addressed.

[…] […]

[…] […]

The other thing I thought about this morning is that it damages our credibility to be sanguine about technology that does a lousy job. But I will try very hard from now on to take your observations to heart and resist hyperbole and overstating the problem. And it’s so important to provide some kind of solution for the customer. Thanks for the reminder.

Broadband internet is not a neccessity of life like food, shelter, and water, it is a luxury. I see people driving around in big, roomy SUV’s and think how nice it would be to be able to own one as well, but I don’t expect that one will be GIVEN to me any time soon. Everybody must live within a budget and it may not include broadband or any other kind of internet. I am middle class and I just got connected to broadband a few months ago, before then, I couldn’t afford it.
Not ALL companies, government offices, and universities are completely computerized. Paper forms and phone calls work just fine. Remember the olden days?

Who’s to say if everyone was “connected” that they would be tuned into the debates anyway. Some people get enough of it on TV. :)

Libraries have large computer labs available to everyone. Yes, they are always full but eventually after an hour’s wait the next patron gets an opportunity to use the computer. While patrons are waiting for their turn on the computer they could, now hold on, browse the BOOKS, maybe even check one out!!! I know this is another subject completely but there are many services at the library that could be used while waiting for a computer.
Just my opinion.

Broadband becomes more of a necessity when it is the only way to get your tax forms, apply for your government jobs, apply for government aid, apply for your job benefits, set up your banking for your new job that starts in a few days… Many of the government offices in this area no longer help people with these things. They give people the URL they need and direct them to the library. If they have to stand around and wait for a computer to fill out those forms, it IS an issue.

I’m not sure where you live, but be very grateful that they’re still using paper forms and phone calls, because they sure aren’t here. The post offices even quit carrying tax forms because it was “too big of a hassle,” so we are now the only place people can get them if they do not get the correct forms mailed to them or have a computer, Internet connection, and printer at home.

A great many companies will only accept resumes through online forms. We’ve had jobseekers in tears in the Computer Center because they’ve been trying to hand out paper resumes and the companies refuse to take them. It’s not unusual for one of the Computer Center staff to grab a Kleenex box, sit down with someone, calm them down, and talk them through an application on a Web site and act as a general cheerleader as they fumble with the computer. I spent an hour last Saturday helping a new security guard set up his medical, vision, and dental benefits, W-4 information, local tax information, and direct deposit information on his new company’s extremely buggy portal site because they expect new hires to have that all done before they ever show up for work. Apparently HR in certain companies can’t be bothered to explain anything any more.

So I think it’s a little naive to act like having a computer is sheer extravagance for people. Having an SUV is an extravagance when you could have a smaller car–you still have transportation. Having no access to basic government functions, job applications, and HR forms required for your job is different. That access is what enables people to get and keep that food, shelter, and water, and is such it counts as a necessity.

Broadband access becomes more of an issue as websites seem (IMHO)to be including more graphics whizzing across the page (and other bandwidth-eating unnecessary crap) Try going to say, an automaker’s website to price a car’s options. You’d better have high speed and the latest version of a browser that can handle the graphics (let’s not even talk about all of the different plug-ins you might need!)

You just wrapped up my problem in a neat little bow. Excellent job! I don’t know how many businesses place their job applications online for jobs that don’t require a computer.

Some great points made here. Where we live going online at the library is fine-as long as you have plenty of time! After school (when the kids need access to do their homework) you could wait a couple hours to get to sit down at a computer. Then you are limited to how much time you get to use it. We regularly have some of our kid’s friends over who can’t afford broadband so that they can get a fair chance. What we need is a National policy to get broadband access to all Americans. True high speed access that would enable students to join interactive study groups and the like.

The CWA (Communications Workers Of America) has started a project called Speed Matters that addresses our broadband access problems. They are also “interested identifying educators who would be interested in talking about their vision of what they could do if every child had home access to a computer with a real high speed connection”.

Check out their website at www.speedmatters.org

As Roger said, some great points have been made in previous comments. One aspect of digital divide which I’ve not yet seen mentioned is remoteness. I live in a state which is sharply divided between urban and rural. Libraries in the remote parts of the state have banded together to provide good services, but basic connectivity is still an issue. If the closest big town or city is hundreds of miles away, chances are that broadband providers aren’t very interested in providing connection. It’s not cost-effective for them, nor does it bring them many new customers. I agree with Jessamyn that it’s cool what libraries are doing. But having greater social support will go a long way in closing the gap.

[…] […]

You say, “That’s a shame. People on the other side of the digital divide have a much higher chance of their only internet access being filtered access, that’s not very democratic.”

I do not understand. Filtered access is constitutionally approved in US v. ALA and that’s “not very democratic”? Anyone not a minor can ask for the filters to be temporarily disabled without even having to provide a reason and that’s “not very democratic’?

Exactly what does this say about “people on the other side of the digital divide,” that the law should not apply to them? That they are too ignorant to understand the librarians advising them that filters may be disabled upon request?

I do not understand. Please elaborate.

Very few libraries I’ve been in have signs that their Internet access is filtered and the filters may be turned off by request without a reason given. I know that my library’s policy is available on our Web site and as a hand out, but not as a sign, and the library board insisted that anyone requesting that the filters be turned off show ID and that we log it. I also know that we’re one of the better libraries. Some in the area have staff who don’t know how to turn the filters off or who simply refuse to without a given reason. While the Supreme Court may have thought it was a fair law, the implementation is anything but.

So the problem is not the people on the other side of the digital divide. Yes, they are ignorant of their rights, but that’s because the librarians often are NOT advising them that filters may be disabled upon request, and even when they are, the implementation may require that their use of library resources is logged in ways that no other library resource use is. So, if you have a home computer, good for you! Surf whatever you want! If you don’t, Big Brother is watching you.

And let’s not even get into the number of people who hit mistakenly filtered sites and are embarrassed and don’t ask for help because filters do not work and simply provide expensive ineffective answers to moral problems (and a false sense of security, I’d like to add)…

SafeLibraries, we’ve discussed this at length on the wikipedia site and I do not want to discuss it at length here. The Supreme Court making a decision about funding conditions for libaries is not at all the same as mandating filtering in public libraries. Saying something in “constitutionally approved” is very different from saying that it’s mandated and itself is not an accurate way of describing the results of CIPA. There is NO LAW that mandates filtering, there is only a Supreme Court decision that if the government that wants to tie funding to filtering, it’s not breaking the law. It’s a huge difference.

The point I was making is that richer libraries can afford — if they disagree with the stipulation that they must filter — to forego funding. Poorer libraries can’t, and have to put up with bad filtering, often poorly implemented as Meg mentions above. Most libraries that I have been in that filter have no visible notification that adults can have the filters disabled. Many libraries don’t even have the power to disable the filters at the time a rquest is made.

The Supreme Court case was decided prima facia, basically saying that as the law was written, it’s not unconstitutional. There is still room, according to (I think) Justice Stevens for an “as applied” challenge — meaning that the law as applied restricts constitutionally protected speech. No one has seen fit to challenge the law yet, but data gathered by the ACLU and others seems to point towards the law being applied in ways that violate people’s free speech rights. It’s for a court of law to determine, all I can do is point to what the courts have already said and how that affects poor people.

Are you aware that nathangphd lost his job because you linked to his post? Way to go.

I wasn’t aware of that. His post was on a public website, visible to anyone. While I’m truly sorry if he lost his job, I’d have to say if he lost it it’s because he made that post in the first place on a public website. Anyone could have linked to it, I’m just someone who happened to.

I think maybe one of the things that comes out of the whole nathangphd situation is that burnout and stress among librarians is an overlooked problem. That much of the public doesn’t understand what we do is annoying and somewhat problematic, but that very few administrations or HR departments seem to understand how stressful our jobs can be and what that stress does to us, is a different and more pressing problem.

When all librarians hear from administration is “remember customer service” and “the customer is always right”, it makes us feel like bad librarians (or bad people) when we have a frustrating day, or when the cumulative effects of frustration begin to burn us out. I know that (in a past job), displaying any attitude that was not relentlessly cheery and upbeat about all patrons, no matter what the situation (up to and including assault) was construed as “having a bad attitude”. Even asking about how to cope with stress was seen as “not being a team player”, and met with reprisals. The sad fact is that some librarians have few other outlets than the library_mofo community on Livejournal (and other, similar entities). No wonder nathangphd sounded angry and frustrated in his post! (though I’ll bet — without knowing him — that his public presentation took a different tone than did his post)

When you think about it, librarians get little recognition from the public as being professionals, often deal with continually slashed budgets, are vastly underpaid for the amount of education (and student loan debt) that we have, and work in a service profession with plenty of public contact — it is no surprise that we get stressed and burnt out at our jobs. Even the best of library administrations generally offer little in the way of support, and the worst often compound the problem. I think a constructive exploration of ways for librarians and administrations to combat this problem has been needed for quite some time. I’d write it, but I’m honestly as baffled as everyone else.

I think a constructive exploration of ways for librarians and administrations to combat this problem has been needed for quite some time. I’d write it, but I’m honestly as baffled as everyone else.

I think that’s a really good point.

A lot of what we call technostress, I think of as really a management problem where people’s expctations of what can be done with technology from a management perspective and what can actually be done with technology realistically by staff are two very different things. When I worked in public libraries I was always beign told to do things with the public computers and the patrons that were totally unrealistic, both in their ideas of how patrons would respond and their ideas of how the technology even worked. When you try to explain that their ideas are unrealistic, you’re branded as “not a team player” which is horrible to hear for someone who works really hard, all the time, with very very imperfect systems.

Every time I see a TV commercial for some new technological marvel, whether it’s a cell phone or an operating system or some feature of something we already have, I sort of wince knowing that there’s a huge gap between the idealized version of the technology presented and how it’s going to work in real life. Just the difference between how our library PCs work and how a patron’s PC works at home is enough to point that out. Every difference needs to be explained to savvy users and is taught to novice users as “this is how a computer works”

It’s terrible and there is no understanding that this is the bulk of what a lot of librarians do with very little training or guidance and even less empathy to how difficult that job is. I made a decision at my job that I would not get yelled at for my job and when someone started yelling, I made them talk to my boss. Not a team player, I guess.

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When you hear account like this, it does cause concern. So, I thought it might be interesting to look at other posts the guy made, knowing that there is always more to the story. I browsed the library mofo archives to see what he wrote. Upon reading through a ton of posts, it is clear the guy hated everyone! Glad I don’t have to work with him.

I mean, we all have bad days, encounter difficult interactions with people (customers and coworkers, alike.) We are all entitled to complain. But, when the rants are personal attacks on people based on their weight, how they look or sound, etc., it is not defensible. He slams administrators, coworkers, volunteers, his city, and customers equally. In a few posts, he even goes to the extent of threatening physical violence (kicking people and running others over with his car.) Sounds like he is in dire need of some counseling.

And, shame on him, he did nothing to make his posts private! He used his name, mentioned his city, and basically names people he is slamming. He didn’t lock the posts or make them friends only. Once you make it known to your employer and coworkers how much you hate them, it is time to go. Why would any organization want him around knowing that he hates what he does, who he serves, and the people he works with.

This is definitely a cautionary tale. Be careful about what you do on the internet. It is public. Be mature.

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Nathangphd is a wonderful person. Until you have walked a mile in his shoes, you really shouldn’t judge.

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I’ve had library filters that simply display a 404 instead of telling you that you’ve been filtered. (I know, because I can see the first half of the text file load up, and then it blinks to a 404, which is impossible.)

World Wide Web Resources…

I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting…

[…] Enough to say the first point is from Steven M. Cohen at About LibraryStuff.net in the post Help Others Better Their Lives. That post takes us to Second Life Hype vs. Human Needs by John Gehner the Coordinator of the Hunger, Homelessness & Poverty Task Force – SRRT/ALA. Which in turn points us to Annette DeFaveri and the Working Together Project (about libraries and social inclusion/exclusion) and Jessamyn West for her work on the digital divide. […]

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Are iPhones seriously not for sale in Vermont? Why would that be?

They’re not for sale because Cingular/AT&T doesn’t have service in VT technically. I mean I can get service with my Cingular phone but you can’t get an 802 number through them.

And iPhones are tied to AT&T. Brilliant.

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I have the same issue as Jessamyn. Cingular isn’t available in Alaska either. Not that I’d pay $500 for a cell phone.

But I *am* impressed that your page is actually readable on *any* cell phone!

I want one of these iPhones so badly! At the very least, I’ll settle for looking up my blog on someone else’s. Very cool.

They aren’t available for sale in the Dakotas or most of Minnesota either. So much for th hype . . .

In all fairness to the digital divide, go read the reports of the Cingular Edge service on the iphone… wretched.

Less populous areas can’t use GSM (which is what AT&T is on) but rather use CDMA for cell phones. CDMA allows the towers to be farther apart and provides *much* faster download speeds for data. So… blame Apple and AT&T for locking up the iPhone for the next five years, but rural states have superior cellular broadband.

Don’t you know, you never buy anything when it first comes out. You wait to work out all the glitches!!!

The $599 price tag is digital divide enough for me. Then again, I still can’t afford an iPod. I do have an iShuffle, but on the Good Ship Lollypop of 21st Century Technofetishism, that’s steerage.

Great post. I’m interested in tiny libraries. I don’t know what I’m talking about here, but I’m not going to let that stop me…

I wonder if there is a way to install Ubuntu from a keychain drive, if so you could pack one with your stuff when help do this kind of stuff. Also I read that some libraries have opensource software installers on CD that can be borrowed format he library - if would be cool to make Ubuntu availalbe now that you have it downloaded.

Oh, this brings back memories. I started working in IT in 1995, and my first project was to convert 50 Windows 3.1 PCs to Windows 95. Of course, back then you could use the same product code over and over again. I also had to figure out how to squeeze every last bit out of the hard drives, by constantly removing temp files.

Anyway, it IS a pain to have old equipment. I was freelancing as a computer tech, and this old lady had some piece of **** that wasn’t worth keeping, but she insisted, so I ended up having her buy all sorts of hardware to upgrade the PC, and in the end she finally bought a new one. I hated charging her, which is one of the reasons I got out of being a freelancer.

You are a saint for doing this! I look forward to this when I become a librarian (SJSU class of ‘08, hopefully).

A friend at a smaller (not tiny) public library was telling me the other day that they are seriously considering not accepting book donations other than for their yearly book sale.

They found that “free” was costing a lot in staff time. Someone had to do a quick visual check of the material (moldy crap/smells like ashtray vs acceptable). They then would take the acceptable material and check to see if it was in the catalogue, etc. If it was in the catalogue then it was just an added item (still requires processing etc), but if it wasn’t in the catalogue someone then has to decide if it is needed. My friend spent an entire Saturday going through about 300 computer books deciding what to keep or not.

This is off the topic, but I’m curious how the teeny libraries you know of have decided to catalog its collection, if at all. With the cheap and free options for ILSs expanding, and then options like LibraryThing or Delicious Library out there, are there still situations where a library can’t afford to automate? I guess if they can’t get a single reliable computer…That’s a good point about the time it takes to solicit the free stuff out there (or write a grant, etc.). What do they do instead? Tell me no one has to type cards…

I don’t see it as a comment, but I’d vote for doing an Edubuntu install (http://www.edubuntu.org/) as either a standalone or as a diskless lab booting off a server. Easy install, well documented, very robust with Firefox, Open Office and some 20 packages for kids and teens.
I’ve modeled this with an old Gates computer with two NICs as the server and old Dell Celeron 550 (OPACS) as the clients.
IMHO

Jim
GCPL
Xenia Ohio

Out of the four libraries I work with most often, only one is automated and they have a classic OPAC via Follett that works in the library but is not online. We are getting it online this week sometime. The rest type cards, or get them from the people they buy the books from.

It’s not so much that they can’t afford to automate, but that they don’t have the time+money combination. Any sort of automation requires intensive person-hours of work and there’s very little incentive to do it. There is a statewide ILL system that works for ILL stuff and other than that… hard to say. I’m trying to encourage them to think about Library Thing, but most of these libraries really need a supported solution — none of the lirbarians are tech savvy enough to really run an OPAC with all the other things they have to do in their 16 hour weeks — which isn’t going to happen with an open source option that is within their budget. So, we wait…

If there are lots of other tiny libraries in that situation with automation, it strikes me that there’s a business opportunity here. For someone to start up a fully hosted solution running Koha or Evergreen (open source ILS), if it can be done at a tiny affordable price. There would have to be realistic expectations as to support provided for price paid. Seems like an interesting idea to me.

[PS: Your comment system—if you forget to type in the magic word, or if it decides you are spam for some other reason, you have to press the back button, and in Firefox my comment is gone, it’s lost, I need to type it in again. This has happened twice now! Got to remember to copy the text to clipboard before I hit submit. ]

[…] Last night, I happened to stumble across a post on librarian.net that touched upon a lot of the issues I’ve been wrestling with recently. Jessamyn details the many ordeals associated with donated computer equipment in libraries: I ran down the options with the librarian. 1) Buy an XP license or three from Tech Soup. 2) Hassle her friend to figure out wtf is up with the software on these computers. 3) Wipe the drives and install Ubuntu. […]

Hi! Somewhat off topic, but could you please give specifics about how/what/why you are upgrading and tweaking your personal X31? Funnily enough (and sad too) that is the laptop that I use everyday. I plan on upgrading to a newer laptop in August before the next semester starts, but I’d love to take the time over the summer to play around with the Thinkpad. Can you give any suggestions?

Open source software is such a hot topic in academia and I’d love to have some practical experience in doing something technical like this before I graduate (UT-K, May 2008 hopefully.)
Thanks!

A hosted solution isn’t necessarily the big problem, but finding someone to enter all the contents of the library. Even a small library contains a lot of information… The two-county system I used to work for is slowly getting automated, and that’s what is taking the libraries so long. The tech setup is there. The people with the time (and attention) to enter the data in any sort of speedy manner are not.