Ken and Joe from South Huntington (NY) PL – the “iPod Shuffle guys”

Ken
————
did a radio interview because of circulating the shuffles!
a suburban public library that only serves about 37,000 people; budget of about $5 million
iPod program started with a $2000 grant from a legislator

why?
- cheaper (showed a chart of the pricing structure comparing formats); 29 titles from RB saved about $500 by buying the digital versions
- use the savings to buy iPod players
– no need to replace damaged cassettes and CDs
– titles available sooner
– conserve shelf space
– are portable and can be listened to almost anywhere

Ken: Audible is increasingly not selling to libraries (boooooooooo)
Sachem PL and others having problems with Audible now
they’re telling libraries they don’t own the titles they’ve bought

why buy through iTunes – own the title
SHPL limits the number of concurrently circulating titles to the number of copies the Library owns
Apple *does* know what they’re doing and they’re okay with it; they noted it on the Apple web site!

iPurchasing
– need a credit card and an email address and then you’re good
– they store audio book files on a server and make a backup of each title

iiiCataloging
– catalog the equipment (have 20 Shuffles now, up from 6)
– titles
– have started circulating music this way, too (about 50 albums); aimed at young adults

iProcessing
– they even circulate an auxiliary input connector
– include a nice little content card with the cover of the book

Circulation
– 21 days was too long, so they switched it to 14 days
– no ILL
– $1 per day overdue fine
– no problems getting the Shuffles back, and they’ve been circulating laptops patrons can take home for the past 5 years and haven’t had any problems with them
- have a waiver form patrons sign if they’re bringing in their own iPods; this is because the content on the patron iPod gets deleted when the Library plugs the device to their computer, but now they’re getting away from that because it was a barrier; this is changing with the new video iPod - can supposedly load content from multiple computers
– circulate a user’s guide with the Shuffles

Ken gave props to their board (who understand that lets them experiment because they understand that sometimes you can fail) and their staff (for being willing to try new things)

patrons aren’t beating down the door for this, but when they’re aware of it, they love it

User survey results of 185 people (got 54 responses):
– 48% borrow audiobooks 2–3 times per month
– 26% once a week

– 48% listen in the car
– 19.3% listen on portable CD or tape players with earphones

– 39% listen to fiction
– 29% listen to new or bestsellers

– 81% had not borrowed an audiobook on iPod
- 19% yes

– 73% female
– 27% male

– 30%, 55–64 years-old
one 80–year old woman was thrilled with the program

had 35 people turn out for a program on the subject at the Library!
– middle-aged and older

What’s New?
—————
now circulating music on iPods – thinks will this take off
developing a YA collection of audiobooks and music selected by the kids themselves
doing an audio tour of their art exhibits
exploring podcasting library programs

“keeping ourselves relevant!”

audience question: are you going to circulate TV episodes?
Ken: they’re going to work on that

question: has training been an issue?
Joe: yes, but they have a staff that is not afraid to try new things, which is essential these days

question: are you going to create a separate download page for the teen collection? did you create the page listing all of the titles (the one with the book covers, etc.)?
Joe: they do have a YA link on their site where they will add the titles; not sure how the page is created, but it’s dynamically created

question: do the files on the iPod expire?
Ken: no, and they don’t delete themselves off the iPod; they manually erase them off patron iPods

question: are there other content suppliers besides Audible for iPods?
Ken: not concerned because iTunes is the biggest outlet for Audible, and it’s harder to violate copyright issues with iTunes and iPods

question: when the patron downloads to their player, do you charge $1 a day for the file if it’s checked out
Joe: yes. had a plan they would email confirmation it was deleted

question: one title, one circ rule?
Joe: yes, following what they do in the print world

question: how do you get around iTunes limitations of allowing only 5 different devices?
Joe: can authorize up to 5 machines to play the content, so they just open multiple accounts

Technorati tags: IL05, IL2005