Survey of Tablet Computer Lending Programs in Libraries 07/2014 (ISBN No:978-1-57440-298-8 )

The 80-page study presents the results of a survey of 42 libraries with tablet lending programs or those just about to implement one. The report gives detailed data and commentary on how the programs were organized, financed and implemented and their impact on patrons and libraries. The report helps its readers to answer questions such as: how many tablets do libraries maintain for loan? Which brands do they prefer and which are they planning to purchase in the future? How much have they spent on their tablet lending programs and plan to spend? Do they load their tablets with apps? If so how do they choose them? How many tablets are lost to theft? Or to negligence or accidents? What is the fine for overdue tablets? What is the length of the lending period? What are the circulation figures for tablets? What has been the impact on other library resources, such as a pre-existing laptop lending program? Or on use of the library’s eBook collection? Which libraries do they view as models and what advice can they offer to peers? What services or training are offered to library patrons about how to use the tablets? Data in the report is broken out by library type (public library/public college/private college/special library), by size of library staff, and size of stock of tablet loaned and other variables.

Just a few of the report’s many findings are that: 

• The mean stock of tablets maintained for patron lending by the libraries in the sample was 17.56 with a median of 10 and a range of 1 to 190. 
• For the Amazon Kindle, 7.14% considered a purchase highly likely within the next two years; 23.81%, likely.
• Libraries that lend out laptops generally did not report a decrease in demand for laptops from patrons after the implementation of a tablet computer lending program.