Some Parents Annoyed at Presence of iPads in Brooklyn Library

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because the iPad is a better overall device for a library then any eInk Reader.

For young children, certainly. Colour, animation, and audio are valuable tools for attracting and maintaining their interest. eInk devices are a more cost effective alternative when it comes to older children, teenagers, and adults. Once a child starts reading chapter books, they are working mostly with text as well as black and white illustrations. Teenagers (and adults) mostly consume texts that lack illustrations, so there is very little reason to purchase an iPad.

[FizzyWater]

Uh, parents can always refuse to let the kiddies *use* the iPads...but no, they're probably just dumping the kids at the library so the librarians can serve as babysitters as well.

Maybe I've been lucky, but all of the kids I've seen in libraries have been accompanied by adults or behaved responsibly without supervision. Besides, you'd think that the parents seeking free babysitting would love the iPads since their kids would want to go to and stay at the library.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Uh, parents can always refuse to let the kiddies *use* the iPads...but no, they're probably just dumping the kids at the library so the librarians can serve as babysitters as well.

Some parents will use anything as a babysitting service. I wonder why these even go to the trouble of having kids, since they are so inconvenient. They did this to me when I used to own a commercial Martial Arts School. Kids classes were always held in the early in the evening. Some parents would not pick their kids up until after the adult classes ended. Some we even had to call to come pick up their children.
Apache

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by crich70

You can't turn back the clock. As others have mentioned it is the 21st century and ebook technology is apparently here to stay. Libraries have to provide services to their patrons that the patrons want in order to keep people coming in the doors. If I ran a movie rental business and all my movies were on VHS I wouldn't be in business for very long since most people want DVD or Blu-ray movies now days. And the same goes for options for reading books. The libraries have to provide what the people who use them want or their doors will close. In the end you can't please everyone. I note that the header reads some parents annoyed not all parents annoyed. So there must be at least an equal amount of patrons who do like the Ipads being available. My public library offers ereaders, ebooks and audio books in addition to movies and of course pbooks for checkout. They also offer CD's and when I was growing up my local library had old style movie reels and LP records to borrow. Libraries have to keep pace with the times.

Did the library throw away all there paper books? If not, then what's the beef? The library is providing for both groups.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Apache

Some parents will use anything as a babysitting service. I wonder why these even go to the trouble of having kids, since they are so inconvenient. They did this to me when I used to own a commercial Martial Arts School. Kids classes were always held in the early in the evening. Some parents would not pick their kids up until after the adult classes ended. Some we even had to call to come pick up their children.
Apache

Yep, same problem at our school. Some of the kids, I haven't actually meet their parents even though the kids have been going there for 5 or 6 years.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Hate to break it to these parents, but this is the 21st century and digital is the future. Reading is reading and the device used is secondary to the content. If these parents are concerned that their children will be distracted away from reading, then I question their parenting skills.

On a secondary point, I do question the library's purchase of iPads when other quality tablets are available for half the cost. What a waste of tax dollars.

You know that just because someone else does something that doesn't conform with your personal prejudices doesn't make it a bad choice. It all depends on the uses. The iPad has the richest set of apps available especially for kids. You also have absolutely no clue what the library paid for the iPads in question without looking at the contract. Perhaps they paid list price, perhaps they paid cost. No way of knowing.

[Sregener]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Did the library throw away all there paper books? If not, then what's the beef? The library is providing for both groups.

At one of the libraries I frequent, they discarded about 6 rows of books to make way for a "hand-on learning" area, which is basically a children's museum exhibit.

And budgets are rarely unlimited, and the spending on iPads means a reduction in book spending.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

You know that just because someone else does something that doesn't conform with your personal prejudices doesn't make it a bad choice. It all depends on the uses. The iPad has the richest set of apps available especially for kids. You also have absolutely no clue what the library paid for the iPads in question without looking at the contract. Perhaps they paid list price, perhaps they paid cost. No way of knowing.

Android provides a very good app set for children at a fraction of the cost. In these days of limited budgets, libraries need to think hamburger helper and forget the filet mignon.

Educational institutions get a $20 discount per iPad when purchased in bundles of 10. See posts further up for links.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Android provides a very good app set for children at a fraction of the cost. In these days of limited budgets, libraries need to think hamburger helper and forget the filet mignon.

And given the growth of the Android market, we should expect to see the quantity and quality of those apps improve at a pace faster than iOS apps. Just look at Apple products in the 1980's and 1990's: the best educational software targeted the Apple II and then the Macintosh. By 2000, you were far better off using Windows or sticking with legacy Apple products. The same thing is bound to happen again. Spending twice as much for hardware that can do the same things(1), and offers relatively poor support for institutional deployments, simply does not make sense.

(1) By do the same things, I mean in terms of software capabilities and performance. I'm perfectly aware that the price difference between an iPad and an Android of similar performance is going to be far smaller. On the other hand, there are many usage cases that don't need the hardware as capable as an iPad or Android of similar performance.

[voracious71]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

You know that just because someone else does something that doesn't conform with your personal prejudices doesn't make it a bad choice. It all depends on the uses. The iPad has the richest set of apps available especially for kids. You also have absolutely no clue what the library paid for the iPads in question without looking at the contract. Perhaps they paid list price, perhaps they paid cost. No way of knowing.

Could also be that they aren't brand new ipads. Maybe they're refurbs or donated.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Android provides a very good app set for children at a fraction of the cost. In these days of limited budgets, libraries need to think hamburger helper and forget the filet mignon.

Educational institutions get a $20 discount per iPad when purchased in bundles of 10. See posts further up for links.

Asserting something is so, does not make it so. It's simply your opinion.

Yes, I saw the link. So you conclude from a link for generic apple discounts for education, that this is how much the library in question paid? That's quite a huge leap in logic. Contracts are subject to negotiation and prices vary from contract to contract. For example, I know that one of my co-workers got a bigger discount that than on an Apple computer since his wife is a teacher and gets the discount negotiated by her school district. I reiterate, unless you know the contracted price, you don't know how much the library paid for the iPads. They may have gotten a much better deal, or they could have gotten a lousy deal.

[jersysman]

Ever since the beginning of the company, Apple has always provided huge discounts for schools because they wanted to get potential customers very early. I can see them doing the same thing for libraries. Because Android is a huge conglomerate of different companies, it is hard for a government entity to deal with them all. One cannot judge the price paid in something like this by the retail price. I would suspect that Apple would definitely undercut prices here because, as I said, they has always been their way of doing things.

Originally Posted by jersysman

Ever since the beginning of the company, Apple has always provided huge discounts for schools because they wanted to get potential customers very early.

That practice pretty much ended a decade ago. Teachers and students no longer receive discounts. (They tend to bundle products these days.) The discounts for institutional purchases weren't very impressive either.

Because Android is a huge conglomerate of different companies, it is hard for a government entity to deal with them all. One cannot judge the price paid in something like this by the retail price.

Governments only have to deal with a subset of those companies, and they would usually do so through a bidding process. Companies are typically told what the requirements are prior to tendering a bid, so they can offer a product with suitable specifications in order to make a competitive bid. Apple's product line is simply too limited to make a competitive bid unless the requirements were biased towards Apple in the first place.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Did the library throw away all there paper books? If not, then what's the beef? The library is providing for both groups.

I don't have a beef. Was just pointing out that as time passes things change. Still plenty of old school paper books (at the library) where I live. They have just expanded to include other services as well. Things always change. At one time books were scrolls & there was no Dewey Decimal System to keep things sorted.