CD-R Use Summary and perhaps thought for discussion

[Jill Donnelly]

I posted over a month ago asking for experiences with CD-R's in public libraries...sorry for the delay...but...

Here's the result.

I got 8 responses

2 - interested in getting it this year, so looking for input

3 - just unpacking boxes, looking for input as well

3 - have been using for an average of two years with a variety of results.
One response had no problems. 15 CD-R's in public use.
Another response said they're not used much, but they have instructions on the web page, and they sell the media. (30 machines with CD-R's)
The final respondee said they have 30 CD-R's also, but that they have been problematic in terms of user education.  They have hand outs, and trained staff on hand, but are looking towards perhaps going for zip drives in the future.

In the meantime we have implemented 13 in our library, but haven't gotten the staff trained on their use yet and apparently no one in the community has noticed that they are available.  Our reference staff does all of the user support for the patrons and I am really hoping this doesn't become overwhelming for them.  I don't know what it is about you reference librarians, but the ones here are so darn helpful.  I'm trying to teach them boundaries and the words 'I can't help you with that' in terms of a few of the more out of this world computer support requests they've gotten.

Am I so wrong in that?

Open for discussion...