Circulating LapTops

[Dan Kissane]

Hi all,
We are embarking on a project to have laptops available for check-out at
the circulation desk. The target audience is teachers and education majors
so they can bring these laptops to their classroom.

Ideas the institution here have in mind include a wireless setup so the
laptops can be used in the library over a wireless network, and also a
modem hookup that plugs in to a phone jack and then the laptops can be
moved around in a classroom with such a phone jack modem setup.

The questions are: what are the arguments for an operating platform and
how do you refresh that platform after the laptops are checked back in and
before they go out again? The institution does not want the laptops
restricted in a sense that they want the users to be able to add software.
However, it seems to me I would want to remove all the user installed
software before re-circulating the laptops as the library does not really
hold the license to the software the users installed.

Does anyone know where to locate the data about the number of K-12
aplications available for WINTEL and MAC OS?

Hmm..........
My initial thoughts are NT workstation with part of the disk secure and
the other part free and let the users install into the free part and wipe
it upon return.

However, Macintosh has also been suggested as an OS. They have IMACs in
mind but I have locked up every IMAC I ever touched in 2 minutes.

Hmm....


I am open to ideas. Let em fly! Thanks.

Dan Kissane
Systems Librarian
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, NY 13820
dfk at oneonta.edu