Chat Room-Getting an Earful

In most libraries, however, speakers aren't practical. You certainly wouldn't want someone listening to samples from a hip-hop Web site sitting next to someone playing Oregon Trail with its synthesized "pioneer music" unless those computers are equipped with headphones. But headphones come with their own set of problems. Many library users will wear the same set of headphones over the course of a day, and school and public librarians worry that sharing headphones can spread head lice and various infections. And then there's the replacement problem; kids grab headphones away from each other, and they break.

Daniel Messer, technologies instructor for the Yakima Valley (WA) Regional Library, says, "Our [headphones] don't break too often, but boy, oh boy... don't they just seem to grow legs and walk out of the library?" Messer says that the best way to deal with missing headphones is to buy lots of decent, cheap ones. "If they break, we toss them," he says. But where should these cheap headphones, which would solve both the breakage and the "walking" problems, come from? It's not that hard to find inexpensive sets online; a dealer called Computer Gate (www.computergate.com), for example, sells "Dynamic Headphones" (#MHPF002) for $1.95 each, or five or more pairs for $1.45 each, plus shipping.

What about the possibility of headphones passing head lice among users? Sadly, there's been minimal research--and no conclusive findings--on the topic. The Harvard School of Public Health looked into what's called "fomite transmission"--that is, transmission through objects such as headphones--and found no definite link. On the school's site at www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html, Richard Pollack, who led the research project, says, "Shared helmets and headphones in schools or recreational settings may rarely and transiently harbor an occasional louse or nit... [T]he effort necessary to effectively inspect and clean these devices, however, is not likely warranted."

If you've ever dealt with lice or nits (louse eggs) a child has brought home from school, you won't be surprised that some library staff people worry about lice transmitted via headphones. Phalbe Henriksen of Bradford County (FL) Public Library told me, for example, that the staff puts the earpieces of public headphones into plastic sandwich bags to protect kids' heads. I asked Deborah Altschuler, president of the National Pediculosis Association--I recommend its site at www.headlice.org--whether this anxiety was justified. She replied that more research needed to be done, but right now she didn't know of any documented cases in which lice had been passed on through headphones.

Noting that "there are worse things, such as fungus and scalp conditions," on people's heads, Altschuler says that treating headphones with insecticides or antibacterial solutions in a library isn't a good idea, as they cause allergic reactions in some children. Instead, she advises wiping earpieces of library headphones between uses with a cloth soaked in warm water. Of course, you can't wipe off foam earpieces, so she recommends buying headphones with soft plastic earpieces like those from Hamilton Electronics, sold on several education supplier sites. On the Classroom Direct (www.classroomdirect.com) site, the HA2 phones cost $5.39 each and come with a resealable plastic bag that can be labeled with a student's name. Jay Goldstein, president of Hamilton Electronics, reports that in many districts, parent-teacher organizations raise money so students can each have their own set of headphones. In others, families are simply required to purchase a set for each child. Hamilton even produces $2.99 "refresher kits," with new storage bags and new vinyl earpieces, so a pair of earphones can be renewed for a new student.

"It's reasonable for librarians to be concerned" about headphones spreading lice, Altschuler says, "but the amount of concern needs to be weighed against the available research." So far, it appears that the best course of action is either having students use their own headphones, or buying headphones with vinyl earpieces and wiping them off with warm water between uses. If you hear anything different, we're all ears.