[WEB4LIB] Re: Updating plug-ins

[Hillary Theyer]

For sound plug-ins ... how do you maintain headphones?  Ours die within
days if they are cheap, walk away if they are expensive, people complain
that they can no longer share a terminal, people with headphones on can't
hear us unless we tap them on the shoulder, people complain about the
"buzzing" nearby.

What solutions have libaries found?

Hillary Theyer
Palos Verdes





At 01:43 PM 10/5/99 -0700, Jean-Marc Edwards wrote:
>At the University of Ottawa we do pretty much the same.
>
>We have installed the following plug-ins on our public workstations :
>
>Word viewer
>Adobe Acrobat Reader
>WinFrame ICA plug-in (to access our CDs on our WinFrame server)
>RealPage plug-in (some electronic journals need this)
>MediaPlayer
>
>We also added QuickTime but have a lot of problem with it
>because our Netscape browser is on a server and not local.
>
>We run other helper apps like 
>W3launch (for web access to loacl CDs)
>Cdlaunch (for CD access from a DiscPort server).
>
>We are now considering adding PowerPoint.
>
>We try to have 2 revisions a year for updates. Not more.
>We do our updates in the same time we upgrade our security software 
>which is WinSelect and Fortres. All the plug-ins options are 
>controlled by WinSelect. 
>
>Jean-Marc Edwards
>Information Technology Access Librarian 
>University of Ottawa
>
>
>On  5 Oct 99 at 13:03, Dan Lester wrote:
>
>> At 07:34 AM 10/5/99 -0700, Barbara Brattin wrote:
>> >The plug-ins need to be downloaded on each individual machine, and our
WinU
>> >security makes this labor-intensive. How have the rest of you dealt with
>> >this? Do you take a stand and provide only the top ten, or do you try to
>> >have every one available? How do you streamline downloading so the process
>> >is not so labor intensive? We are running an NT network, with Windows
95 on
>> >the desktop and  WinU security/ menuing software on public stations.
>> >Thanks!
>> 
>> At Boise State we don't have speakers on our web stations, and don't add 
>> "plugins" in the usual sense.  However, we do link Acrobat, Word Viewer, 
>> Excel Viewer, and Powerpoint Viewer, as they are needed to support either 
>> remote journal articles or content put on web pages by faculty 
>> members.  Fortunately, we haven't really had the demand for the "latest
and 
>> greatest" of viewers for various video formats, MP3, VR, and so 
>> forth.  We'd tend to resist those unless we could be shown a curricular or 
>> research need.
>> 
>> Of course students can, and do, go to computer labs to do many of the 
>> things we don't support in the library.
>> 
>> cheers
>> 
>> dan
>> 
>> --
>> Good, Fast, and Cheap: Which two of the three would you like?
>> Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716 USA 208-383-0165
>> dan at 84.com   http://www.84.com/  http://www.postcard.org/
>> 
>Jean-Marc Edwards
>Bibliothécaire - Technologies de l'information et accès
>Information Technology Access Librarian
>University of Ottawa Library Network
>Courriel : jedwards at uottawa.ca
>Tél: (613) 562-5800 ext. 3225
>
>