Public CD-R / CD-RW stations in libraries?

rich at richardwiggins.com rich at richardwiggins.com
Wed Jul 4 10:27:49 EDT 2001


Are any libraries (public, school, university, or corporate) offering public stations that can burn CD-R or CD-RW disks?  

The query about getting a download to fit on a floppy inspired this question.  It seems like public CD-R stations could be a tremendous boon for some patrons. CD-R prices are now so low that it's almost time to stop using floppies, and 650M is a lot more capacity than 1.44.  (CD-R disks are available for 35 cents apiece in quantity, and CD-RW disks are near the magic $1 mark.)

Seems like this could be very convenient for folks doing complicated full-text searches.  And in public libraries, this could be a digital divide bridge -- patrons who have home computers but no DSL or cable modem could download 100 megabyte software packages and burn a CD for use at home.

This also could be a nightmare: technical problems, patrons hogging the machines, questions about copyright infringement or unsavory materials, interaction with filters...

Just curious...

/rich

_____________________________________________________

Richard Wiggins
Consulting, Writing, and Lecturing on Internet Topics
rich at richardwiggins.com  http://richardwiggins.com 


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