[12513] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
machine count in the real world
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Miriam Bobkoff)
Thu Oct 22 20:30:41 1998
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 18:26:45 -0500
From: Miriam Bobkoff <mbobkoff@shell.rt66.com>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
The following information is offered as food for thought, or as trigger
for a conversation.
Santa Fe Public Library serves a city with population of about 60,000.
It has a main library, and two branches. We circulated 544,636 items in
the past year. We are a City agency, and recently did an inventory of
hardware for the city's MIS guy who's worrying about Y2K, so I happen to
know afresh the following facts:
1. We have 101 PCs (including several dead or nearly dead ones).
2. 59 of them are public access machines (OPAC, Internet, CD-ROM , word-
processing or periodical database stations).
3. The PCs range in age and smarts from two 233mhz Gateways running NT 4.0
to several 286es, some donated by the public, which are used as text-only
terminals to access the catalog system (both as OPAC and for some staff
workstations).
4. All the public internet and periodical-database machines were purchased
with grant money.
5. The City has no upgrade or replacement cycle. MIS buys what it can with
whatever budgeted money, and distributes them according to their judgement
as modified by necessity and political interference. A number of
hand-me-downs come to us as MIS upgrades machines elsewhere and the old
dumb ones fall off the bottom of the musical chair list. Sometimes we get
_good_ hand-me-downs, too.
6. MIS budgeted us for two new PCs this year. And the Friends of the
Library are buying 5 new ones for Technical Services, which will release 5
older ones for hand-me-down. ILL will finally get its own workstation. The
public will get 3 additional internet stations.
7. That's 7 new machines this year, against an existing inventory of 101
(some dead) with ages probably up to... gotta guess: 8 or 10 years, even?
The sketch diagram our director made of where the new ones go and the
consequent machine swaps and the hand-me-down bumpings of old 286s to
other places they're still needed looks like a joke, but it's real life.
I think my point is, I bet we're in as good a shape as many public
libraries (and better than lots). I'd love to see similar descriptions
from other libraries; what they have, how they get more, the age of their
stock, what proportion for public, etc.
I've been waiting for a while for the nerve to post our machine numbers...
Thom Gillespie's post has inspired me to speak up.
Miriam Bobkoff personal: mbobkoff@rt66.com
Santa Fe Public Library work: mbobkoff@ci.santa-fe.nm.us
Santa Fe Poetry Broadside
http://www.rt66.com/~sfpoetry/
