recommendations for public webstation printers

[patrickf at library.tmc.edu]

     Um, aren't we forgetting the estimated 80% of the U.S. population 
     without home computers?
     
     "Heat death?" Sounds awful. But then, so does "digital 
     incarceration"...
     
*********************************
Patrick Flannery                     
Network & Systems Analyst                 
Texas Medical Center Library                 
1133 M.D. Anderson Blvd.
Houston, TX    77030
e-mail: patrickf at library.tmc.edu
phone:  (713) 799-7103
fax:    (713) 790-7052
********************************



______________________________ Reply Separator 
_________________________________
Subject: Re: recommendations for public webstation printers
Author:  R124C41 at aol.com at Internet
Date:    3/6/96 9:47 AM


In regard to the question posed by Robert Cameron, Loyola University Library 
(New Orleans) [cameron at beta.loyno.edu] concerning recommendations for public 
webstation printers...
---------------------------
Let me make the following radical proposal.  
     
Provide **no** printers at public webstations.  
     
Instead, provide the Adobe Acrobat PDFwriter and floppy disks to which users 
of public webstations can "print" (in PDF format) via the usual web browser 
print capability.
     
In addition, arrange with Adobe (this will not take much) to provide the free 
Adobe Acrobat Reader program on a disk that individuals may take away with 
them to install and use on their home computer.
     
In this way, you will be doing the users a favor in not letting their 
information suffer the heat death of getting transformed onto paper media.
 You will also, I believe, save on consumables.   And finally, if the users
really do want to print the stuff on paper, they can do it on their home 
computer where they stand the entire cost.
     
Isn't this the right way to go?  Isn't this the direction we are all heading?
 Isn't it important to encourage users to go this direction too?
     
--David Ritchie
--R124C41 at AOL.COM
--Naperville, IL
--http://members.aol.com/RitchieDJ