September 2, 2009

Susan Mark, WY

Question:

Do laptops or PCs that are only used for learning labs count as public access internet computers?  I'm thinking no, but could use some feedback on that one. They're being used by patrons, but only in formal classes.

(IMLS) In the resulting discussion, this question also arose:

Should PCs that are internet-wired, but can only be used to search a web-based OPAC (because they are locked down to prevent further web-browsing), be counted as public access internet computers?

IMLS Response (after comments):

The Data Standards Committee of the Library Statistics Working Group determined that neither of these 2 categories of PCs described above should be counted as “internet computers used by [the] general public”.  The reasoning is that since we seem to be most interested in the extent to which a user can use a library facility to access the Internet as he or she would use similar facilities at home, for an internet PC to be considered public access, all of a library’s service community should know of its availability all the time rather than the maybe/perhaps use of a computer in a lab or one used primarily as an OPAC.  Simply stated, a public use computer is a unit available at ALL times the library is open to the public.

This is a very important data element, so to avoid future confusion, a discussion of its wording might be helpful in December.

Comments:

Terri Assaf, MI

No, public access computers are those the public can access without staff intervention.

Katina Jones, MO

I agree with Despina on #3… Patrons aren’t required to bring their own laptops to participate in classes offered by the library, right?

Michael Golrick, LA

Because we have not counted computers by branch, I am going through this process informally now. (Yes, we are adding it for next year’s state survey, but that won’t be in for 6 months, and we will need the data sooner.)

I am surprised (but pleased) at how many have laptop labs, and we are counting them as public computers – and at the risk of opening a different can of worms, we also count as public PCs, OPACs which use the web to search the catalog (even if locked down to prevent further web browsing). While sometimes what we care about is hardware, sometimes it is also about bandwidth and a PC using a browser to search a home library catalog on the web still uses bandwidth.

Terri Assaf, MI

Yes, it can and often does happen, but staff assistance is not a requirement, as in the case of a computer lab.

Despina Wilson, DE

However, staff intervention can happen with any public access computer. A staff person in one of our libraries once sat with an older gentleman to show him (basically train him) how to use e-mail so that he can communicate with his son in Iraq.

IMLS 

The definition of that particular data element is the following: “Report the number of the library’s Internet computers [personal computers (PCs) and laptops], whether purchased, leased, or donated, used by the general public in the library.”

If patrons can only use a PC if they are enrolled in a particular class, then it would seem like that PC wouldn’t be included in the count, since it’s not truly available to the general public.

Hulen Bivins, AL

In Alabama, we do NOT allow the counting of lab units.  We count only computers available at ALL times to the public that the library is open to the public.  Additionally, we do not allow the counting of any staff computers even though in an emergency such could be used by the public for a specific purpose.  We do allow the counting of designated computers that are available at all times to the public.  Herein an example would be a computer(s) in the genealogy section designated for ancestry research only.

Again, the diversity of the states is shown and makes one wonder how we (SDCs) all get along so very well! 

Bruce Pomerantz, MN

Minnesota does NOT count terminals that can only access an OPAC as a public internet computer, even if it is a web-application catalog. I opine the intent of the data element is to determine the degree that people can access the entire WWW. To count an OPAC-exclusive terminal as having access to the Internet is akin to counting someone with a visual problem so as to be able to only distinguish shades of black and white as sighted. 

Katina Jones, MO

Not that I want to disagree with my mentor (sorry Hulen) or split hairs with Everett, but the definition says nothing about only counting PCs that are available to the public at ALL times the library is open.  Does the phrase “General Public” imply a timeframe?