Schneider Declartion... turns into time control/session counts

[Karen G. Schneider]

I'll ask Roy Tennant to adjudicate this one.  I find it strange that Burt
has forgotten our agreement not to hold Web4Lib subscribers hostage to what
amounts to a personal debate about filtering.  I am not going to use
Web4Lib to defend or dismiss why I submitted a declaration to Mainstream
Loudoun about how filters function (which includes nothing new, let alone
intimidating), and I consider it highly inappropriate for David Burt to
discuss this at all in this forum.  I will say that if you ask me a
personal question, I will give you an honest (and personal) answer.  If
Burt (or anyone else) fires back a response on Web4Lib, I will not post
anything in reply, and I encourage all of you to stick to the topics
Web4Lib is intended to address.  Imho, this is a better road than being
critical of Burt, because John Berry of Library Journal just published  a
column saying in essence that Burt had to quit a discussion list (ALAOIF)
because he was picked on so much.  Don't make Burt a martyr.  "Just say no."

Incidentally, for those interested in what I see as the real issue here
(how to manage public access to networked information), you might be
interested in my comments to the New York Times in an article about the
Ventura Case.  I come off sounding very calm and poised (I really bluffed
those folks, huh?). My point, in essence: library use policies have always
distinguished between conduct and speech--the problem, which all of us are
grappling with, is how to do it with new media.  See: 

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/98/04/cyber/cyberlaw/03law.html

Meantime, speaking of resource allocation... for those of you using access
management software (such as WinU or WinKiosk) to control time on public
workstations, what do you do if the patron needs more time?  Is it possible
to override a session or stop/restart a sssion?  And, how can we count
patron sessions on our public workstations?  I don't mean just hits on a
website or hits on a catalog... I'm thinking holistically, in terms of X
users per workstation per day.  I'm hoping to stay away from legal pads
with pencils next to them, which aside from being patron confidentiality
issues are a bit low-tech and time-consuming to manage.   My guess is our
usage picture will end up being a glom of websites/catalog accesses/CD
uses, but hey, make my day.  :-)
_________________________________________________________
Karen G. Schneider |  kgs at bluehighways.com http://www.bluehighways.com
Director, Garfield Library of Brunswick, NY 
Author: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters, Neal Schuman, 1997 
Information is hard work
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