Individual printers v. Network printer

Michelle Morris morrism at rocky.laman.lib.ar.us
Tue Dec 30 19:08:53 EST 1997


We have HP DeskJet 540s attached to each computer and have had for 2.5 
years.  We have only had one have a problem.  There are 14 for public use 
and since we have access to the Internet they get heavy use.  

That's my $0.02.

Michelle Morris
Computer Systems Support Technician
Laman Public Library
North Little Rock, AR

On Tue, 30 Dec 1997, Jim Richards wrote:

> Either way, color printing is going to be expensive.  As far as how we are going
> to handle the people who only want black and white copies, we're working on
> that.  My main concern is that the inkjets are not going to hold up.  Every
> inkjet that I've ever owned personally or worked on within a company (except for
> the old HP ThinkJets) has died a grueling death after a very short period of
> time.  I have yet to have seen a good, heavy-duty, inkjet printer that can take
> the abuse for under $300.  Sure, you can buy a more expensive inkjet but then how
> can you justify spending $500 or more for each machine in the lab?  Maybe it's
> just me, but I just can see using a $300 inkjet for anything more than home use.
> 
> Jim Richards    Network Administrator
> Naperville Public Libraries
> 
> Dan Lester wrote:
> 
> > At 11:28 AM 12/30/97 -0800, Jim Richards wrote:
> > >We use a networked printer in our word processing lab.  We are planning on
> > >setting up an Internet lab very soon and I am considering doing the same for
> > >one reason.  I know that most of our patrons are going to want to print in
> > >color so I want to set up a networked color laser printer instead of
> > having to
> > >deal with a bunch of inkjets.
> >
> > Most interesting.  Either the Naperville Public Libraries, or else the
> > citizens of Naperville, must be pretty well heeled.  Actually, both will
> > need to be.  Have you checked out the cost of printing to color inkjets or
> > laser printers, or the cost of the color supplies for inkjets?
> >
> > Also, even if you have a way of billing/collecting funds (assuming you
> > can't afford to give away all these color copies, of course), how are you
> > going to deal with the person like me who wants to get cheap printing of
> > black and white.  If you charge a dollar for a color print, and I only want
> > a page of black and white text, I'm not going to gladly pay more than a
> > dime for MY page.  I imagine one could develop a software solution for the
> > differential pricing and printing, but I've not seen one on the market yet.
> >
> > I'll be interested in learning of your implementation of it and the issues
> > that arise.
> >
> > cheers
> >
> > dan
> >
> > Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho 83716-7115 USA 208-383-0165
> > dan at 84.com   http://www.84.com/  (check out our 1997 holiday letter)
> >
> > http://library.idbsu.edu/   http://cyclops.idbsu.edu/ http://www.lili.org/
> > Sent me a postcard of a library yet?  You'll get something nice in return.
> 
> 
> 
> 


More information about the Web4lib mailing list