[WEB4LIB] RE: Floppy Disks

[Robin Boulton]

I concur with what Philip says - we have an almost identical setup and 
procedure.


At 10:47 AM 7/3/2002 -0700, Phillip B. Whitford wrote:
>Bill,
>
>It's not an archaic policy but it is conservative. And you should be
>concerned. But the question is how much risk do you want to deal with?
>We allow patrons to use floppy and zip disks, theirs or ones they buy
>from us, on our Internet machines. We even have a hard drive partition
>they can download to. We use Norton and a variety of security measures
>to keep patrons from tampering.  I also have a Ghost image of the
>machines. We keep Norton up to date and keep the computers patched with
>the latest software and operating system updates, service packs, and
>patches. Our public machines get hit by viruses everyday and sometimes
>patrons lose data and occasionally I have to Ghost an image back to a
>machine that is fouled up. Most of the viruses we see are e-mail related
>or Word Macro viruses. We do not allow patrons to use Outlook or Outlook
>Express.
>
>We think the risks are out weighted by the benefits to our patrons and
>it really has not been a major problem for us.
>
>I know other Sys Admins who think we are being to risky and even a bit
>irresponsible. I have been told out setup allows patrons to spread
>viruses they get from the Internet to other computers either via the
>Internet or by floppy or zip discs.  I don't deny it's true on occasion
>but we try to take every precaution consistent with providing as much of
>a full Internet service as we can to our patrons.
>
>Phillip B. Whitford
>Manager of Information Systems
>Braswell Memorial Library
>727 N. Grace St
>Rocky Mount, NC 27804
>252-442-1951
>Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Braswell Library.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib at webjunction.org]
>On Behalf Of William M. Wines
>Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 12:59 PM
>To: Multiple recipients of list
>Subject: [WEB4LIB] Floppy Disks
>
>
>Hello all,
>
>I'm looking for some authoritative answers to a question, and I figured
>this is the place. :-)
>
>Is there any reason for a library that offers public Internet access to
>be concerned about patrons using their own floppy discs to download and
>upload files?  (Given that it has an adequate virus-protection program,
>such as Norton)
>
>We have many patrons who use web-based email and currently our usage
>policy prohibits the use of floppy discs; therefore they can't upload
>or download attachments.  Is this or is this not an archaic policy?
>
>-----------------------------
>Bill Wines
>Assistant Director
>Walled Lake City Library
>1499 E. West Maple Rd.
>Walled Lake, MI 48390
>(248) 624-3772
>http://walled-lake.lib.mi.us
>-----------------------------