Powering down at night answer to original post

[Julia Schult]

At our library we have two clusters of computers on power
strips that have switches in black boxes at the end of a
cord, so while the power strip is way under the table, the
switches themselves are on top of the table, near the
printers.  Another large cluster has a power switch (at the
reference desk) which controls the power to four sets of
outlets; each outlet has a surge protector plugged into it,
and the computers are plugged into those.

Each night, our closing student goes to each computer and
"shuts down" from the Start menu (of course, we only have
twenty of these public computers).  Our computers are set to
go to the "You may now turn off your computer" screen.  Then
the student hits the main power switch at the reference
desk, and power switches at our other two clusters.

In the morning, we just turn on the power switches, and all
the computers come up without intervention.

I worried some about electrical "shock" or wear and tear,
but over two plus years we have not seen any evidence of
it.  We're supposedly on a three year purchase cycle, so we
should be replacing the bulk of our computers next summer
anyway, and our four older machines have not shown any
symptoms either.

The only problem we have had with the "built in" power
solution is once our Library Director's knee hit the power
switch in the middle of the day, turning off all of the
large cluster with no preparation.  Oops!  But he's the only
one of us tall enough for his knee to hit the switch without
trying <g>.

---Julia E. Schult
Access/Electronic Services Librarian
Elmira College
Jschult at elmira.edu