Dedicated use Web stations, (was limiting Lynx)

[Lesley Williams]

The preceding discussion on limiting the URLs accessible at public 
workstations reminds me of an issue we'll soon be wrestling with. We have 
four public terminals which access the Web through Netscape, and about 10 
which access our CD-ROM LAN. Many of our CD-ROMs from Infotrac, Gale, and 
Wilson, are now or will soon be available through the Web as well. 
Ideally, we would like to start subscribing to as many as possible 
through the Web alone, in order to get more current information, and to 
avoid the limitations of CD-ROM.

However, if everything is available on the Web from every workstation, 
how do we make sure that patrons wanting to use the reference products 
get a fair chance? The Web terminals are always in use, largely by people 
doing casual surfing. Should we designate a certain number of terminals 
for reference Web products only? Is this feasible? We are also 
considering creating a business and jobs workstation, which would have 
CD-ROMs, Web sites, and software related to job searching and company 
information. How would we keep patrons from using it for general Web 
browsing?

Let me stress thst we would always want to retain a certain number of 
workstations for unlimited Web use, but given that we'll be paying 
for access to Web based reference services, we would want to be sure that 
they don't get lost in a sea of other products.

All ideas appreciated!


Opinions expressed above are solely those of the author, not an official 
communication of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.

Lesley Williams	                                   tel 847-506-2667
Electronic Resources Specialist                    fax 847-506-2636
Arlington Heights Memorial Library                 lwilliam at nslsilus.org
Arlington Heights IL  USA
                        
                           www.nslsilus.org/ahmlhome