[OPLINTECH] Circulating Laptops

Tue May 26 09:18:18 EDT 2009

Matt
In this instance your ILS is your friend. 
Set up good loan rules and have a laptop AUP so the patron understands the limitations of checking out a laptop.
In the great whoop and warp of things there isn't all that much difference between giving patrons a laptop for 2 hours or letting them walk out of the building with $1,000 worth of DVDs and books on tape.

Jim Mann
Technology Coordinator
Greene County Public Library
76 E. Market St.
Xenia Ohio 45385
(937)352-4000 x1210
mailto: jmann at gcpl.lib.oh.us
"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." - Mario Andretti.

-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Hoffman [mailto:mhoffman at heightslibrary.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 8:52 AM
To: Mann, James H.; JKENZIG
Cc: oplintech at oplin.org
Subject: RE: [OPLINTECH] Circulating Laptops

I'd love to go with cheap Windows laptops.  Our Board wants Macs for the
public, however, and we don't have much choice (don't want to get into
the politics of this much).  That being said, we're much more concerned
about policies and procedures than we are with the technical aspects of
them.  I assume we will have breakage, that the staff will not
understand when the wireless gets turned off somehow, that the only way
Deep Freeze can help is to reboot the computer, etc.  But it's things
like do we require a driver's license to borrow the laptop?  What are
others doing to prevent the laptops from leaving the building?  Any
other issues of a non-technical variety with them?

Thanks for any help,

        Matthew Hoffman, Network Administrator
Cleveland Heights - University Heights Public Library
   (voice) 216-932-3600 ext. 284 (fax) 216-932-0932
mhoffman at heightslibrary.org www.heightslibrary.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Mann, James H. [mailto:JMann at gcpl.lib.oh.us] 
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 10:15 PM
To: JKENZIG
Cc: Matt Hoffman; oplintech at oplin.org
Subject: RE: [OPLINTECH] Circulating Laptops

We think that it is an incentive to return them.
I looked at and bought a netbook but it was too small IMHO. We circulate
mostly Dell D600s.
________________________________________
From: JKENZIG [JKENZIG at cuyahogalibrary.org]
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 3:50 PM
To: Mann, James H.
Cc: Matt Hoffman; oplintech at oplin.org
Subject: Re: [OPLINTECH] Circulating Laptops

Wow $1500? Thats an incentive NOT to borrow them! Why would you not
just get $350 12" netbooks?

Jim Kenzig
Please excuse any typos.
Sent from my iPod

On May 23, 2009, at 11:45 AM, "Mann, James H." <JMann at gcpl.lib.oh.us>
wrote:

> Matt
> GCPL is circulating about 20 laptops.
> Some thoughts:
> 1. Buy cheap, off lease Windows laptops and don't expect more than
> 18 months out of them before they die or a patron drops one.
> 2. Create a desktop that is like your public computers so patrons
> (aka staff) don't get confused
> 3. Lock them down with SteadyState or Deepfreeze
> 4. Setup your login so it sees the nearest wireless first
> 5. Barcode everything....laptop, power supply, mouse
> 6. Create your loan rules, item types etc for 2 hour loan periods,
> no renewals, no holds, suppressed from catalog whatever
>
> Our procedure the short version:
> 1. Staff logs on the laptops and make sure they connect to the
> wireless
> 2. Staff launches the PCReservation and LPTOne clients and checks
> that the laptop is in the queue
> 3. Patron requests laptop and staff checks it out making sure the
> patron can checkout items and has a "laptop AUP" note in their file.
> Our AUP basically says "you break it you buy it" and we do require
> young adults to actually bring a parent in to sign the AUP. A long
> time ago the discussion was to make the fine twice the cost of a
> laptop from the bookstore so students would have no incentive for
> checking it out and keeping it for the entire quarter.
> 4. Once the laptop is checked out staff makes a reservation in
> PCReservation and the patron gets the laptop for a full 2 hours. The
> laptop patron really gets bonus time but it is simpler and a good
> battery is going to die in 2 hours anyway.
> 5. Hopefully staff checks the laptop back in or the patron goes to
> collection very quickly with a $1500 bill
>
> Issues:
> 1. It's a fairly complex process for staff and simple things like
> the wireless being turned off can be baffling...but the laptops
> often hold their IP for a couple days so it often is simpler.
> 2. You're never going to get them to fully charge so assume that
> they will need to be plugged in. There was a blog post recently
> about a University study where students said they wanted comfortable
> chairs, good wireless and convenient electric. We offer study tables
> with outlet strips and hard backed chairs.
> 3. Assume you will need mice
> 4. Get a couple extra batteries, hard drives and power supplies or
> even a spare laptop. You should have a Clonezilla or Ghost image of
> each model laptop.
> 5. Find a cheap laptop repair vendor. My rule is that you get one
> $200 repair and then its trash
> 6. Accept that Steady State and/or DeepFreeze only work on a restart
> and a restart requires staff to go through the login process again
>
> I can send you a link to my vendor's latest laptop offerings if you
> like.
>
> HTH
>
> Have a safe holiday weekend.
> ________________________________________
> From: oplintech-bounces at oplin.org [oplintech-bounces at oplin.org] On
> Behalf Of Matt Hoffman [mhoffman at heightslibrary.org]
> Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 11:58 AM
> To: oplintech at oplin.org
> Subject: [OPLINTECH] Circulating Laptops
>
> Hi!
>
> Just wondering how many of you are circulating laptops at your
> libraries, what issues you run into with them, and what policies and
> procedures you have had to institute to deal with them.  Are you
> using PCs?  Macs?  Any info would be much appreciated!
>
> Thanks!
>
>        Matthew Hoffman, Network Administrator
> Cleveland Heights - University Heights Public Library
>   (voice) 216-932-3600 ext. 284 (fax) 216-932-0932
> mhoffman at heightslibrary.org www.heightslibrary.org
>
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