[OPLINTECH] Floppy disk problems

[Jamie Mason]

	Avon Lake Public Library is in the middle of this very
discussion...
	Our Reference staff says that patrons are still using floppies
and therefore, we must purchase new computers with floppies on them.  I
agree that we must give our patrons access to the methods that they use.
	I actually suggested to Brad at NEO to negotiate a group buy to
try to get the USB drives into the $5 range.  It is my opinion that a
patron will more easily be able to come up with $5 on the fly versus
$10.  We have in the meantime, purchased 128MB flash drives for $10 and
will be reselling them for $10.  We only have an initial quantity of 10.
I want to see the response and whether maybe $10 isn't as hard to come
up with for the patrons.
	I am discontent when I get called out to help a patron and their
floppy is "unformatted".  I can only tell them that I can not help them
and that unfortunetly the technology is dying (after trying several
different computers, ofcourse).  I then suggest that they get a USB
drive, a more reliable technology at the moment.
	We also have CDRW drives and ZIP drives available for patron
use.  It seems more and more that teachers are requiring students to
make powerpoint type presentations and they often do not even fit on a
floppy.  So at 9:05 pm (five minutes after closing) we are scrambling
around to try to figure out a way to get the students assignment, which
is due tomorrow, saved for them.  
	We are working on a way to educate our patrons to move on from
floppies.

Hope that helps Phil (and others)  Although, I am waiting for Jim's
(Kenzig or Mann) answer to this problem or atleast their implementation
of a solution.

~Jamie