<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><html><head><meta content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></head><body ><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><div>I've purchased refurbished/used computers for the libraries I've worked at several times over the years, increasingly for the purposes Matthew highlighted in his reply. (most recently, I purchased 12 used laptops in late 2019 for a mobile computer lab that the staff used for training during an ILS migration in January of this year, for instance). <br></div><div>Chad's point about the specs is very important. For instances, there have been times when I've purchased used computers that were 3-6 years old and I would do some cheap upgrades that would increase their usability and useful life (like swapping out the hard drives, upgrading the memory and putting a fresh install of whatever OS you want on it). If you don't have the time/skills/motivation to do those upgrades there is likely a local computer shop either in your community or towards the nearest larger city who can. <br></div><div><br></div><div>For examples, those laptops I bought late last year were purchased from a small computer shop in suburban Dayton (Lenovo Thinkpad T540s, 4th gen i5, 8GB of probably DDR3 or DDR3L, 120GB SSD, fresh install of Win10 pro by the shop) and cost $180 each. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Even with them getting used more by staff for remote work/zoom calling during the pandemic, I expect to get several years out of them as public programming computers. <br></div><div><br></div><div>So, yes, it's very do-able, but watch the spec and plan to/pay to have appropriately reconditioned. <br></div><div><br></div><div>Have a good day.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Joe<br></div><div><br></div><div>PS full disclosure, with new computers and the breakdown of Moore's law, I tend to look for a 7+ year replacement cycle with a mid-cycle refresh of things like SSDs and memory, so I'm more willing than most to roll the dice that one or two of them will have components fail before I replace the fleet of units..<br></div><div><br></div><div style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: 0px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; line-height: 0px;" class="zmail_extra_hr"><br></div><div style="" data-zbluepencil-ignore="true" class="zmail_extra"><div><br></div><div id="Zm-_Id_-Sgn1">---- On Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:20:54 -0500 <b>Matthew Kinsey via OPLINTECH <oplintech@lists.oplin.org></b> wrote ----<br></div><div><br></div><blockquote style="margin: 0px;"><div><div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 10.0pt;"><div>I have purchased a couple personally for hobby applications but have not used them at work. In my opinion, in a library they would be best suited for diskless kiosks, digital signage and occasional-use classrooms. Depending on usage patterns and software demands, used might be OK for general public use but I would only entertain that as an austerity measure. At our system we try to adhere to a rolling 4-year refresh cycle and buy new so I usually have some of my own "refurbished" units on hand.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Matthew Kinsey, IT Coordinator, Guernsey County District Public Library<br></div><div><br></div><div class="x_1010584509zmail_extra_hr" style="border-top: 1.0px solid rgb(204,204,204);min-height: 0.0px;margin-top: 10.0px;margin-bottom: 10.0px;line-height: 0.0px;"><br></div><div class="x_1010584509zmail_extra"><div><br></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div><div class="zmail_signature_below"><div><br></div><div>-- <br></div><div data-zbluepencil-ignore="true" id="Zm-_Id_-Sgn"><div>Joe Knueven, Director<br></div><div>Wilmington Public Library<br></div><div>268 N South Street<br></div><div>Wilmington, OH 45177<br></div><div>937-382-6165 x101 (direct)<br></div><div>937-382-2417 (public)<br></div><div><br></div></div></div><div><br></div></div><br></body></html>