[Publib] "surf cards"

[Aragon, Sean]

I'm in charge of access to most of the public computers in our central library.  Our library gives free "surf cards" to patrons who don't check out materials, but who want to use our electronic services e.g. Internet, subscription databases, etc.  You don't have to provide any identification to receive this card.  The rationale for providing this card was to allow the public who don't have identification a way to use some of our electronic services - you need a library card and p.i.n. number to use our software managed (CybraryN) computers.  We have a policy that allows every card holder 2 hours of computer use per day.  Recently, I've noticed that more and more patrons have more than one library card number, so they are getting 4 or more hours of Internet access per day.  Since our computers are heavily used, this has become a problem.  One patron may have to wait 2 hours or more to get on a computer, while another patron might be on a computer most of our open hours.  Anyone have any similar experience and/or advice?

Sean Aragon
Branch Periodical Coordinator
Fresno County Public Library
Fresno, CA 93657
saragon at fresnolibrary.org

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