How do you maintain your public computers?
Librarians want to know.
Librarians want to know.
When I talk to librarians about the MaintainIT Project, I sometimes mention that even if you think you have nothing to offer the project, someone else may learn from your experiences. On the web site, we say, "remember what may be 'that's nothing' to you may be an 'aha!' to someone else."
Well, yesterday, Eliza Wingate from the Ukiah branch of the Mendocino County Library shared a discovery that fits snugly into that category. She wrote:
"Our public access computers are regulated through Fortres' Time Limit Manager & Clean Slate. We had them set to 'time out' after 5 minutes if there was no keyboard use. Well, they started timing out a lot. Actually more than a lot. One of our Techs suggested that people were watching movies or job skills films online and so they were not touching the keyboard. We removed the idle time limit on 2 computers and extended it on the others."
How many people have experienced this situation? I imagine many libraries have had computers time out for what seemed like random reasons. This is important stuff!
Eliza shared that this was "the first time that I felt we had actually made a discovery" but I'd posit that likely she's experienced many moments, and just didn't realize that what she learns AND knows--no matter how big or small--can make a serious impact on how her peers approach the same situation. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, Eliza!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Tell us about your daily routine maintaining public computers, or a moment when you were particularly proud. Don't forget that what might be "that's nothing" to you may be an "aha!" to someone else!
Visit TechSoup to find donated and discounted software and technology products for your library.
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