Summary and Thanks for help with "Docking Stations"

[Donald Barclay]

Thanks to all who responded to my question about the practicality of
providing "docking stations" and/or network drops into which patrons can
plug laptops. Your input was helpful to me and to several others who sent me
off-list messages saying they were interested in this topic, too.

While the idea seems good--Save money and time by providing only a
connection and letting the patron supply the computer--the consensus seems
to be that there a quite a few problems that crop up when you try to do
this. Laptops vary so much that there can be no such thing as a
one-size-fits-all docking station. Network drops require laptops to have
hardware that most laptops don't have and call for fairly sophisticated
laptop software configuration. My reading is that it all adds up to
something far removed from the ideal in which any patron can walk in with a
laptop and seamlessly plug themselves into the library's network.

That's my take on what was said on the topic. Others are free to disagree,
of course.


Donald A. Barclay
Houston Academy of Medicine-       always the beautiful answer
Texas Medical Center Library           who asks the more beautiful question
donaldb at library.tmc.edu                                   -- e. e. cummings