[Libs-Or] Securing headphones to adult computers

[Mark Hovey]

I agree with Buzzy, John and Cheryl on this issue.  Our history at DPL with fixed headphone installations on public computers was clear; they created more problems than they resolved, regardless of how they were "tethered" to the computers.  In the early part of the 2000s, after receiving the Gates Grant, all of our public computers had headphones attached.   After about 5 years, our district decided to remove the headphones for the following reasons:


*         Headphones had an extremely short operational life due to missing ear pieces, shorted wiring and broken jacks.

*         With broken jacks, the internal components of the computer were compromised at a significantly higher rate than normal, and were not covered under warranty.

*         Customers voiced hygiene concerns with respect to the "sharing" of personal peripherals such as headphones.

*         The majority of visitors chose not to use our provided headphones.

*         Scheduling and follow through of the cleaning procedure for headphones was a challenge for staff.

To ensure that a solution was in place for those few patrons who wanted to use headphones, our district provided the following options:

*         In our largest branch, we installed a vending machine that provides inexpensive headphones for purchase, while still providing "lender" headsets at the front desk.

*         Each smaller branch had the choice to "check out" or "lend" headphones at their front counters.

At present, the only "fixed installation" of headphones at DPL are on our children's computers.  Even with this small installation of fixed headsets (< 30), our IT department has had to address 5 computer problems just this year resulting from broken jacks and shorted wiring.  That is a non-warranty event; meaning that a $20 peripheral caused a $800 replacement...not very fiscally responsible.  With the prevalence of inexpensive earbuds and headphones in today's world, the need to affix and maintain a set of headphones on every public Internet computer no longer exists.

Cheers

Mark Hovey
IT Manager
Deschutes Public Library
(541) 312-1043
http://www.deschuteslibrary.org<http://www.deschuteslibrary.org/>

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From: Libs-Or [mailto:libs-or-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of Cheryl Spangler
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 5:02 PM
To: John Goodyear; libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] Securing headphones to adult computers

We have had them. But after all the broken and  stolen ones, we gave up.

From: Libs-Or [mailto:libs-or-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] On Behalf Of John Goodyear
Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2015 5:00 PM
To: libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us<mailto:libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us>
Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] Securing headphones to adult computers

Personally I would never put on public headphones.  We used to wipe them down with alcohol, but still..

John Goodyear

CCRLS

503-315-4584

www.ccrls.org<http://www.ccrls.org>
On 3/12/2015 4:56 PM, Nathan Pedersen wrote:
For those of you that have headphones attached to each of your adult computers, how do you secure them?

We have been handing out headphones informally for two years, however we are now considering purchasing a pair for each of our adult computers. We are looking for a good solution to "tether" or otherwise secure the headphones to the computers.  Ideally, we'd like to have an audio jack splitter with our headphones secured into one side and an opening on the other side so users can insert their own headphones as desired.

Thanks,

Nate Pedersen
Community Librarian
Deschutes Public Library
(541) 617-7092
nathanp at dpls.lib.or.us<mailto:nathanp at dpls.lib.or.us>
http://www.deschuteslibrary.org<http://www.deschuteslibrary.org/>

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