<div dir="ltr">Offering wireless printers for circulation/checkout? Or offering a printer for wireless devices to print to?<div><br></div><div>Presumably the later.</div><div><br></div><div>I have a couple of libraries that have implemented a "poor-man" version. Rather than using a fee-based service, they have put a reliable, recent model HP printer in the same public IPv4 subnet as the wireless devices. The printer itself doesn't need to be wireless, as long as it in the same network as the WiFi. (In fact, I prefer the reliability of wired vs wireless and disable wifi in this config.) Most print capable devices can simply find it directly by IPv4 broadcast and can install drivers for the printer and they're good to go. For Android devices, HP has an easy free app that works really well for finding a local printer and printing to it. Presumably there's also one for Apple devices as well. Linux laptops/devices have pretty robust HP support too. That should cover most popular devices that print.</div><div><br></div><div>Probably the biggest down-side to this solution is lack of accountability and cost recovery. It would have to be honor system, although you could probably maybe run it through a print server/manager system for cost recovery. I haven't tried that, but as long as the printer is advertised on the WiFi subnet, a local print management system would probably work fine too.</div><div><br></div><div>Another down-side is that printing is limited to printing from within the library's WiFi range. No printing the job from home and the coming to the library to receive the actual product. If that's a service you want to provide, then you're best going with a subscription service and not a "poor-man" solution.</div><div><br></div><div>With a subscription service you might have better features and more polish. However, unless the library just wants the additional and maybe better service for patrons and accepts a financial net loss, I suppose you'd need to have enough income from print volume to cover the cost of the service you choose, as well as the cost of toner/paper/maintenance. So you may need a pretty large volume if you're just looking at financial self-sustainability of a subscription service for the wifi printing.</div><div><br></div><div>No matter whether you use a "poor-man" solution or subscribe to a service, the device owner will probably have to take <u>some sort</u> of action at least one time prior to printing. Most likely this is in the form of installing something...an app, a print driver, maybe creating an account at some website, (maybe all three!), etc.</div><div><br></div><div>With all the different and incompatible methods for printing, you'd think that it was a recent invention! It should simply be ubiquitous by now. Frustrating. :-(</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Chad</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>______________________________<br><b>Chad Neeper</b><br><font size="1">Senior Systems Engineer</font><br><br><b>Level 9 Networks</b><br><font size="1">740-548-8070 (voice)<br>866-214-6607 (fax)</font><br><br><font size="1"><i>Full IT/Computer consulting services -- Specialized in libraries and schools</i></font><br></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Mark Sanzotta <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:msanzotta@acdl.info" target="_blank">msanzotta@acdl.info</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Hello everyone!</div><div><br></div>My Assistant Director has tasked me with offering wireless printers for our patrons. Has anyone found wireless printers that are reliable? <div><br></div><div>Thank you in advance!</div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div><div>Mark<br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Mark Sanzotta</span><br style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Technology Coordinator</span><br style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Ashtabula County District Library</span><br style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">335 West 44th St.</span><br style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Ashtabula, Ohio 44004</span><br style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Work: <a href="tel:440.990.2339" value="+14409902339" target="_blank">440.990.2339</a><div>Cell: <a href="tel:440.969.5486" value="+14409695486" target="_blank">440.969.5486</a></div><div><br></div><div><h1 style="margin:0px 0px 15px;color:rgb(24,24,24);font-weight:normal;padding:0px;font-size:14px;font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman',serif;line-height:18px">“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.” ― <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1221698.Neil_Gaiman" style="color:rgb(102,102,0);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">Neil Gaiman</a></h1><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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