[WEB4LIB] Web Catalogs

[Dan Lester]

At 09:07 AM 2/26/99 -0800, Steve Bachman wrote:
>>Has a library that has already shifted emphasis to use of their OPAC in
>the library had difficulty with patrons doing other things than searching
>the catalog?  I can easily forsee a situation where all
>>of the PCs earmarked for catalog use are being used to surfing the
>>internet.

We've not had much of a problem with it at Albertsons Library, Boise State 
University.  We have twentyfour internet workstations, each of which has 
three icons on the desktop.  They're labelled as "WebCatalyst Online 
Catalog", "ClassicCatalyst Online Catalog" (i.e., telnet which some 
prefer), and "Internet".  The first two go directly to the named service 
via the appropriate protocol.  The latter goes to the library homepage, 
http://library.boisestate.edu

We have kept the traffic on the workstations down a bit by blocking all 
email, chat, and game playing.  The usage is increasing as we license more 
and more databases that include full text of articles (e.g. Expanded 
Academic, ABI Inform, etc.), but we'll also be converting another twenty 
machines that are currently limited to CDROM databases to web capable 
machines.  We hope that will satisfy our needs, as we can't cram in many 
more than the 44 machines we now have.

cheers

dan



>>
>>What steps have been taken?  Signage? Time limits? Policies?
>>Am I just paranoid?
>>
>>TIA,
>>Steve
>
>***********************************************************
>Steve Bachman                   *  The large print
>4cty_steve at 4cty.org             *  giveth,
>Electronic Services Librarian   *  and the small print
>Four County Library System      *  taketh away.
>http://lib.4cty.org             *           -Tom Waits
>***********************************************************

--
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716-7115 USA 208-383-0165
dan at 84.com   http://www.84.com/  http://www.idaholibraries.org/
http://library.boisestate.edu/   http://cyclops.boisestate.edu/
http://www.lili.org/  http://www.postcard.org/  http://www.homesight.org/