Time control scripts?

[Karen G. Schneider]

We are in the process (I almost said "throes") of bringing up our Windows
NT server and simultaneously securing public workstations with Fortres,
upgrading the browser, etc.  We had a peer-based Windows 95 network and are
migrating, one hopes, up.  Anyway, like most of the library world, we would
really like a good tool for time management.  After looking at a number of
third-party time management packages--and after having a year's experience
with Cybrarian--and after thinking about tools like EZProxy, which I'm
planning to evaluate later in September for access to databases and to
provide a way for users to log in--I'm wondering if anyone has home-grown
scripts for logging patrons out after X minutes and optionally providing
warning messages and possibly an option to override.  

Like a lot of you, we have workstations used for various things--we still
have some CDs and we also have computers dedicated to office productivity
tools (word pro, etc.).  So my guess is that in-house, I'd still be talking
about one menu screen in front of all the other applications, and off-site,
the webpage devoted to applications would be the entry point.  (Unless we
decided that the real issue was not how much time people spent in Word or
using Phonedisk but how much time they spent on the 'net, which may
actually be what we're really trying to control, now that I mull this
over... in which case, a browser-based solution would work.  Your
reflections here would be useful, too.)

We're considering moving the public workstations to NT workstation early
next year, to do the native-security thing, if this makes any difference.
(I would say "Windows 2000" but you know what I mean--if that shows up, it
shows up.)  

Time control is truly the "Rosebud" of web librarianship... 

________________________________________________
Karen G. Schneider kgs at bluehighways.com, she_schne at sals.edu
http://www.bluehighways.com 
Assistant Director of Technology, Shenendehowa Public Library, NY
Author: A Practical Guide to Internet Filters, Neal Schuman, 1997