[Publib] "Serious" internet users versus "entertainment" users

[Robert Sullivan]

> Limited computer time to two hours a day seems like it would penalize
> everyone. Giving longer sessions to people who are doing research or looking
> for work would work for about one day, when everybody realized that all they
> have to do to get a longer session is tell us they are doing research.
>
> Anyone have a solution that cuts through the Gordian knot?

We have "catalog and database" PCs which allow access to our catalog,
our subscription services and selected Web sites we want to make
easily available: the state job bank, state and federal tax forms, our
local history and genealogy site, etc.  (We used to have a proxy
server which locked in the allowed addresses, but that is being phased
out and we are handling it another way.)  There are no time limits on
these computers, so if a patron wants to sit on Ancestry all day or
take a Learning Express test, there isn't the pressure to get off.

These PCs are older than our Internet PCs, but they're not intended
for watching music videos and with some extra memory perform
reasonably well.

We have some enhanced versions of these which have the same limited
online access plus Microsoft Office 2000, so patrons may do their
resumes or whatever.  These PCs are popular and as we put out some new
full-Internet PCs, the older models will be recycled to this more
limited duty.

-- 
Bob Sullivan
Schenectady Digital History Archive
<http://www.schenectadyhistory.org/>
Schenectady County (NY) Public Library