Libraries are known for books. And despite the constant march of technology, despite the fact that we can put a bazillion songs in our pocket, despite the availability of the New York Times and so many other newspapers and thousands of journals online, books are a big part of what libraries are. Books, dead tree books with that rotting paper smell. And though I dare not prognosticate, I expect they’ll be an emblematic feature of libraries for a while now.
Problem is, books are increasingly anachronistic to young patrons who’ve grown up with the wonders of Google and full text searching.
Find a patron who can explain whatever call number system is in use at your library. Find a patron who can locate a book as fast as they can find movie times in any random city.
That’s why I was anxious to speak with Pepper Computer’s Jon Melamut last week. The Pepper Pad (pictured left) is a delightful, but hard to define post-PC device. Take a look at the specs or my hardware review (coming soon) to learn more.
What’s so special about the Pepper Pad? It’s portable, more portable than a laptop. Laptops move from desk to desk, but patrons often leave them behind when they go looking for books or other materials. See it? Books and computers — even laptops — don’t mix. In this age of computers, PDAs, and iPods, a pen and notepad are still one among our best information tools. The Pepper Pad is small enough, light enough to go with the patron among the stacks, around reference, even (god forbid) into the bathroom.
It’s portable, but it has a big bright screen (8.4“ diagonally) that makes web pages (displayed in Mozilla) and other text easy to read. Your library catalog will look great on it, and any maps or location guides will make a lot more sense when patrons can view them in-situ. It will help them find the books they’re looking for, then offer them a lot more once they do. They should be able to use it to mark the book as useful, or not. And if they stumble across something they didn’t expect, they should be able to mark that too — or look up bibliographic details to help decide what to do with it. Got search-inside-the-book going? How better to use it than on a Pepper Pad from within the stacks?
The portability, the touchscreen, and the stand that keeps it upright and available at all times could make it an ideal research companion. Of course, the built in web radio and AIM client help too. Better, it could enable new applications, new modes of accessing library resources that current technology hasn’t yet revealed.
No matter how small laptops get, they’ll still be deskbound. Tablet PCs change that, but they’re expensive and depend on touchy handwriting recognition. Libraries need inexpensive, useful devices like the Pepper Pad. Libraries are rethinking the OPAC, but the way we access the OPAC must change too.
tags: handheld, handheld computer, laptop, laptop computer, libraries, library, library catalog, library catalogs, opac, pepper, pepper computer, pepper pad, ultra portable
3 Comments
Nifty unit, for sure. I appreciated your review and applicability to libraries. I wonder, however, of the use on the campus. A colleague has asked for all the features of the Pepper Pad, but also the ability to take notes. While you can thumb input, it doesn’t appear that input is a forte’ of the unit. That’s where a tablet might have an advantage in a classroom. On the other hand, if things got dry, you could always listen to music or watch a movie.
Dwight,
I meant to address this in my hardware review, but it got left out along with a number of other important points.
I used to look doubtfully at small keyboards like the Pepper Pad has, but I’ve started to convert. I used to be a believer in handwriting recognition, but I’m losing faith. My handwriting goes unpracticed most days, but I’m a better typer than ever. And as we look at social trends, kids are being introduced to keyboards before they learn to form letters. It should be no surprise that teenagers can text so fast.
Short answer: it looks awkward, but I’d bet a few pints of your favorite that you could enter text faster on the Pepper Pad than on any HWR device you’ve got. More importantly, I’d bet our incoming class would see even greater efficiencies in thumbing over scribbling.
thank you
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[...] The Pepper Pad’s portability goes far beyond that of laptops. I mentioned previously that laptops move from desk to desk and Bill Gates tells us how poorly laptops work in elevators. Unlike laptops, the Pepper Pad takes a number of cues from from some of the most successful (and profitable) portable computing devices to come before it: the Game Boy and Playstation Portable. It’s no toy, but like those devices, the Pepper Pad works better in your hands than on a table — though the folding stand will keep it upright if you do put it down. [...]
[...] Background: this post is grew out of some discussion at TeleRead, NoSheep, and here at MaisonBisson. [...]
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