I posted recently about law library kiosks in Washington State, kiosks being something I’ve rolled around in my head for a couple of years. There was an interesting discussion in Ontario about using them but it came to nothing. But I was inspired by Karen Sawatzky’s tweet, which is the next step: how do you do a kiosk? There are a variety of paths, I think, but they all share some commonalities. Here’s how I’d do it and some challenges I haven’t quite worked out.
The whole idea behind kiosks is to create a simple access point to high value content that can be placed where the researcher is. Ideally, it would be relatively inexpensive to accomplish. Even better, if it requires a technology acumen that is in easy reach of any solo law librarian.
The basic elements that I picture are:
- a device with an operating system, input tools, a screen, network access to the internet, and a browser
- a piece of furniture to hold the device
- a non-technical person available to restart the device
I’m assuming a web-based interface and no other tools on the kiosk. This is just about access to information, although I’ll talk about some ways to flex that a bit. If you can accomplish those 3 things, I think you can have a kiosk. The details are really up to how you want to approach it and what resources you have.
The Hardware
Acquiring the technology for a kiosk may be the easiest part. A web-based kiosk doesn’t require a lot of horsepower to run. You could:
- use an old computer that is no longer able to run the latest Windows operating system or Office suite, but could run a lighter weight operating system like Ubuntu. The first PCs I bought my kids were $30 a pop Dell PCs off of eBay.
- acquire a Raspberry Pi for about C$60
I would lean towards the Raspberry Pi for a couple of reasons:
- it’s really small, so it gives you more options for furniture and location
- it’s really light, so getting it to or from a location could happen by mail
- it takes very little power to run
You obviously need a keyboard and mouse for most legal publishing web sites. This is where you might consider accessibility needs. Your choice of keyboard or mouse might vary depending on your audience. For example, I find the in-library catalog keyboards at my public library to be very small. They were probably cheap, and I can touch type, but the keys are about 2/3ds the normal size. I would probably have bought larger ones, where the keys were easier to see, perhaps color coding some of the important keys.
Another option is a touchscreen. This would dramatically increase the cost of your technology (the touchscreens I’m seeing are in the C$300-400 range) but you could stay within C$500 if you went with a Pi.
The type of network you use probably doesn’t matter. Wireless will give you more flexibility for location, since you’d only need a power outlet. Also, most wireless will be fast enough for most legal research. Wired might be nice if you are concerned your kiosk might not be hardened against other wireless users.
The Browser
Funnily enough, the oldest least useable browser – Internet Explorer – is the easiest example of kiosk mode. Hit your WINDOWS key. Type iexplore -k and it will start an Internet Explorer kiosk instance. ALT-F4 to close it.
Google Chrome works the same way. After the WINDOWS key, type chrome –kiosk and it will start up as a kiosk. You must have all other Chrome windows closed.
Firefox seems to only support kiosks if you use an add-on. That would make it less appealing to me but that’s still an option if your organization prefers Firefox.
I’m not going to bother with Apple Safari. I don’t think Mac is an affordable kiosk platform. Microsoft Edge can work but it involves a bit more leg work – and potentially a specific edition of Windows 10 – to be a kiosk. In fact, it’s a lot more technical and requires Windows but could be a very nice kiosk.
An interesting option that I’m going to play around with is the Raspberry WebKiosk, which is a free download that runs on a Raspberry Pi. It seems to provide both kiosk mode and locked down environment. It’s also a good example of how you don’t need to know much to DIY:
This is cookbook DIY. As long as you follow the steps, there is no particular technical knowledge required.
Again, where you fall on the DIY spectrum will depend on the technology standards your organization has or can afford, and the technology skills you can access.
The Security: Browser and Site Access
The kiosk mode web browser is just one piece. A reason the Windows 10 + Microsoft Edge approach might be a good option is because it builds in the restrictions on how the kiosk can be used. You want to lock down the desktop, limit the apps that can be run (perhaps by not installing some), stop people from closing the kiosk browser. There are ways to do this with Windows Group Policy Editor or a commercial product like Faronic‘s Deep Freeze or Fortres Grand’s apps.
You will also want to consider where you want the researcher to be able to go. If this was a truly public access terminal, then normally you’d let them go anywhere. But you may want to limit the sites that can be accessed from the kiosk.
You can use the hosts file on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems to block specific sites if you want. But you can’t block everything with a hosts file. If you locate your kiosk in a venue that is using web filtering like a public library, you can ride on top of that.
If you control the network connection, you may want to run it a service like Cisco’s OpenDNS and use the free account and filtering that comes with it. You would deny all on the filtering side, and then just allow the few legal research sites through.
The Interface
A web page.
That’s the easy part. What goes on that web page – and I wouldn’t make it more than one – will depend on your environment. Since the only way the kiosk will work is with network access, you can assume that everything accessible will be remote to the kiosk.
An approach that I think would work is to come up with the elements that you think you want to include, and then test them out. My short list would include:
- a search box to get them into some content, to enable an option to browsing in case they don’t know the terms of art;
- deep links to legal research services to push users into the specific content that will be most valuable;
- links to research tools like pathfinders, Libguides, etc., that you or another library has developed to get the research started;
- links to a selection of owned ebooks on self-help topics, secured to be read in the browser;
- a Tokbox video chat option or a LibraryH3lp chat box. If you are confident that most users will have a phone – or if a phone can be provided by the kiosk – then a simple call us option may be the best bet.
Video chat is hard, because it complicates the kiosk and it raises the cost. But any chat will require a person to be available, potentially out of normal library hours. I would do NO chat rather than a chat that is only the same hours as the law library (9 to 5, Monday to Friday) because you might as well not have it if you’re not going to staff it more broadly than your physical space.
It’s a simple list of items but you are not trying to recreate the law library experience. You’re trying to extend important elements that can be used largely without intermediation.
Once you have your list, find a way to talk to the audience. This might be public librarians who have documented the types of legal questions they get. It might be the people who are going to use the kiosks. You can take the if you build it, then they’ll come approach but that’s the least best case.
Planning idea: if you are working on a kiosk and know the venue is a public library, ask them to start gathering some of the metrics that could help you create your interface. That way, by the time you get ready to do that work, you already have some data.
The Output
One hurdle that I still haven’t cleared in my mind is how you allow kiosk users to take their research with them. This is particularly critical if one of the options is for them to complete self-help legal forms, a service available in many US courthouse law libraries. Obvious choices would include:
- ability to print to the public library’s print system, to avoid adding a printer and consumables to the cost of the kiosk approach;
- a save to USB option, which raises risks both of infected USBs being inserted and license-breaking downloads to the USB (and the assumption that everyone has a USB drive);
- an option to mail research to an email address, so that it can be accessed later on a different device.
There is always the pen and paper option which would require that the kiosk have space so that someone can write down notes. Your environment may determine the likelihood that you can use a given output method, and should assume the lowest common approach. Otherwise you may create a kiosk that improves access, but offers options that that audience can’t access (email, USB, the cost of photocopies, etc.).
DIY Doesn’t Mean Easy
I don’t mean to suggest that DIY means easy. But I think that a law library that wanted to extend its reach and was willing to make both an upfront and ongoing commitment of funds can do it without too much trouble.