Cd-roms/Universal stations?

[Laurie Schladweiler]

We are planning an expansion/remodeling of our community college library 
including complete rewiring.  I would be grateful for any advice anyone is 
willing to share regarding providing access (in-house) to unique cd-rom 
products which are not available in online versions.

We plan to have 24 pc's in the public area with 35 pc's in an adjacent 
training room and there will be other large computer labs for student use 
outside of the library. We already have a system for remote access for the 
catalog, other online databases, etc. Our students currently still use dumb 
terminals for catalog access and another group of pc's for internet access. 
 Our catalog is available in both versions, however we expect by the time 
the remodeling is complete that we will offer only web access for the 
catalog.

We presently have 5 pc's with cd changers (5 slots apiece) which are not 
connected to the internet for our cd-rom products.  We do plan to network 
these (internal only) even before the remodeling. I guess we'd like to have 
our cake and eat it, too in the "new library".  We hate to lose our 
cd-roms, and if fact would like to purchase more (art, astronomy, human 
body, etc.).  We feel that we cannot afford to designate 6 or so stations 
for this purpose alone and so are therefore interested in networking. 
  Computers in Libraries has had many hardware options advertised as well 
as some helpful articles.  As best I can gather, it's necessary to 
negotiate with each vendor regarding licensing options.  (If a product can 
be seen by several stations but used by only one-do you still need a 
network license?  If you offer wider access how expensive is it to make a 
$50.00-$75.00 product available to 60 stations when you expect only 2-4 
users at a time?  Is it possible to set up a network so that all (library) 
pc's can see products but only one user can access at a time?  Is copying 
on to huge hard drives or storing on a server (with longer access time) the 
way to go?  I guess you also need to know (before you purchase) whether a 
cd-rom product can be configured for a network?)  Our goal would be to have 
each station be a "universal station" in order to be flexible when we have 
extra classes either in the training room or in the main library.

Appreciate your patience with such a long message!  We would be grateful to 
hear suggestions, etc., to share with our technical people who will be 
carrying out whatever plan we decide to implement.  Thanks in advance!

Laurie Schladweiler
West Campus Library
Pima Community College
Tucson, AZ  85709
Schladweiler at pimacc.pima.edu
(520)206-6821