In Pryor, OK, high-school students can take classes that will help prepare them for careers in technology -- at the same time, they also get real-world experience by helping to maintain their local library's 12 public-access computers. David Shreffler, who teaches the high-school computer classes and acts as Pryor Public Library's technology consultant, explained that when the current librarian wanted to spend money to hire a full-time IT staff member, he stepped in and offered his students' services instead.
"I have students that are available about every hour, and we train them to help," Shreffler said. "And it’s a good thing for us and it’s not a lot of trouble."
Shreffler and his students visit the library several times a week to perform a variety of maintenance chores on the computers, including replacing malfunctioning computer components, installing software, and troubleshooting occasional connectivity problems. Because most of the computers are more than four years old, having a regular maintenance team has been especially useful in keeping Pryor Public Library's machines functional.
"They are elderly computers and they just do not run as well as they once would," said reference librarian Marie Reist. "So you can imagine the issues that come up."
