[Web4lib] Patron Media Survey Results

[Michele Haytko]

Here are the results from our Patron Media survey.  Thanks to all who
participated!
michele
P.S.  Sorry it is in text; the file wouldnt attach (or rather, it
wouldn't send to the listservs).  If you'd like a copy of the word
file, please email me directly.
-----

1) Does your library currently have patron machines where saving to an
outside media (disk, etc.) is an option?
Yes	97	96.04%
No	4	3.96%
0 Respondents Skipped question #1	
101 Responses Total	100.00%

2) Do you allow the following media:
3 1/2 Floppy	97	97.98%
Zip Disk	25	25.25%
CD	52	52.53%
USB Flash/Thumb/Jump Drive	93	93.94%
2 Respondents Skipped question #2	
99 Responses Total	98.02%

3) Do you sell the following media:
3 1/2 Floppy	79	97.53%
Zip Disk	4	4.94%
CD	27	33.33%
USB Flash/Thumb/Jump Drive	2	2.47%
20 Respondents Skipped question #3	
81 Responses Total	80.20%

4) If you answered yes to any option in question 3, please explain
(including pricing information).
19 Respondents Skipped question #4
82 Responses Total
We charge $.50 per floppy disk. We have considered selling USB drives
but feel it would case unneccessary work for staff.
We sell used floppies for 50¢ and new ones for $1.00
CDs and Floppy disks are $1 each.
Floopy $.50 CD $1
We charge one dollar for a 3 1/2 floppy. We hold them at the reference
desk and patron's pay for the disks there.
Both sell for $1.00 each
50 cents per disk.
$1.00 for 3 1/2 inch diskettes.
floppy $1 zip $10 - only for older Gates machines. rare to sell one.
Floppy - $1.00
$1 for 3.5 disk
50 cents each
$1 each
We sell the 3.5 inch floppies for $1.00 each. Patrons bring their own
CDs and flash drives. However, we have a flash drive to save patrons'
work if necessary, such as when the floppy gets stuck in the drive.
$1 per disk. We don't have enough call for the others as most of our
computers don'thave zip drives or the ability to burn CD's.
floppies and cds are available at the reference desk for $1 each -
sold as cost recovery
Floppies sell for $1.
50 cents per floppy, 50 cents per cd/r
$1.00 per disk
Floppy disk $1
50 cents
I have a few extra thumb drives that were purchased for a class.
Students can purchase them for $27, our cost. Floppies and CD's cost
$.50. Our computer lab has CD burners, but no floppies. Our library
has floppy drives but no CD burners. Thumb drives work on everything.
we're a small library. we just keep a couple of boxes in a cupboard
and sell 'em for $2 each (that's in Australian dollars)
We sell for $1.00 each. We only have two computers that allow disk save/access.
3 1/2 floppy- free; buy in bulk
Floppy disks available as a convenience. Price is $3.00/disk, which is
a premium well beyond our purchase cost.
floppy 1 dollar...cd 1 dollar
The checkout desk sells the floppies (for $1.00) and has recently
started selling (or will soon...) CD-R's (I am not sure of the price,
although I suspect it will be for $1.00 as well)
Blank, pre-formatted floppys are available for 50 cents each.
Patrons buy the disks at the circulation desk -- $1 each. That said,
there have been MANY problems with the firewall and burning CDs, so
much so that we caution people that they may purchase the CD but it
may not actually work.
WE charge $.50 per CD
We sell floppies for $1
The price for a 3 1/2 in. floppy is $1.
$1.00 per floppy. We will probably sell CDs if we decide to do CD
burners on all; with the technology changing so rapidly, this may not
be necessary.
$1
We sell floppies and CD-Rs for $1.00 each.
We charge 40 cents for a floppy disc
We sell the floppy for $1. Patrons can not bring in their own but must
purchase one from us.
Floppy disks - $1.00 Zip disks - originally $10 but we would probably
sell them for less since they aren't in great demand
$1.00/floppy $15.00/zip (we sell about 1 zip disk about every six
months). We have also had a few patrons ask about purchasing USB
drives recently.
50 cents for a 3 1/2 floppy and $2.00 for a writable CD
$1/floppy
We sell both floppies and CDs for $1 each.
$1.00 / floppy
$1
Floppy $0.50 CD $2.00
$1 each for either floppy or CD.
We just bought a stack of 40 CD-R, plus envelopes to sell to anyone
who wants to burn a CD at our public PCs. We always had formatted
floppies (Mac and PC). CD-Rs and floppies are a buck each.
The Friends of the Library sell the disks at our circ desk for $1.00 each.
We charge $1.00.
We sell each 3 1/2 inch disk for $1.00. Inexpensive resource that
doesn't create a pricey inventory problem, the way flash drives would.
$1 per disk
Floppy disks available for $1.00
floppies $1 each
We sell the disks for 50 cents each--I think that is pretty much close to cost.
We sell only disks for $1.00 each. Our public computers do not have
the CD-ROM drives installed and the patrons bring their own flash
drives.
We sell 3 1/2 Floppys for $1 each---in our system they are either
provided by the Friends, and the Friends receive the profit, or
provided by the system, with the monies going back to the system as
general fees and fines.
A local company installed a machine that vends formatted floppies for
$1. / diskette
$1 for a floppy
We buy floppies and CD-Rs from a catalog and sell them for $1 each
$1 for new floppy or cd Reformatted floppies free (with no guarantee)
We sell either of the media at the same price - $1, this includes
floppy, CDR, or CDRW.
Reference sells floppy disks for 50 cents.
1.00 a floppy. If the computers had CD/RW drives we'd sell CDs too.
Was interested to read here about inexpensive USB Flash drives. That
may be next, but probably not until the price comes down.
3.5 disc is $1.00 each CD-R discs arer $2.00 each. We do not encourage
sales. We used to offer zip disks on PC and sale them also. But we
discontinued them last year due to lack of use.
1.00 per 3 1/2 disk
fifty cents for a blank floppy
we sell floppy disks for $0.50.
$1 for floppies or CDs. We will sometimes reformat a floppy disk that
was left at the library and not picked up for an extended period. We
give these reformatted disks away for free.
Floppies $1.00.
Floppies and CD-R's are both $1.00
Sell floppies for $1. and CD's for $1.50
We have a vending machine. 128 MB thumb drives cost $20.
We sell floppies and CDs for 50¢ each, and have a few spare Zips on
hand that we sell at cost.
We charge $1.00 for a floppy
3 1/2 disks are sold for $.50 plus sales tax.
We purchase the floppy disks from our office supply vendor for and
sell them for $.50. In our new library opening February 2007, we will
probably use all of the above.
We sell floppies for $1.00 and keep them here for patrons to
use...they may not bring in discs from outside.
We sell 3 1/2 floppy for .50 apiece.
.50 + tax for the floppy.
$1 per floppy disc. (I think that now that we have computers that will
take the CDs and USB type devices we should sell at least the CDs. The
others may be too expensive, I don't know I haven't ever bought one.)
$1 a disk, for either

5) Do you store the media for the patron?	
Yes	8	8.00%
No	92	92.00%
1 Respondent Skipped question #5	
100 Responses Total	99.01%

6) Please explain why you do or do not store media for your patrons.
Please include any problems that you have had with patrons based on
your decision.
17 Respondents Skipped question #6	
84 Responses Total	83.17%
We have never considered storing media for patrons, and I doubt we
would for privacy and liability reasons.
We simply don't have the space or the staff to undertake such a project.
We do not store media because of space and privacy issues.
Media is the patron's property. We do not want to be responsible if
anything happens to the media or the data on it.
Biggest problem is patrons leaving their disks in the drive.
are you kidding? we've never even considered it. just seems like a
nightmare. tracking it all, potential loss, damage, theft, mixup...
We don't simply becuase it doesn't come up. I don't ever remember
being asked to store a disk or CD.
Used to do it but space and patrons got to be a problem.
We are a campus of over 20K students. It's not even an option.
Not taking responsibility if any patron's stuff gets lost!
We will store media for patrons, and in my time here (which, I should
mention, is only a couple of months), we haven't had any problems. Of
course, we are a tiny school/public library and serve a patron
population of about 350 people, which does make it easier.
It would be just one more thing to take care of. I can't imagine the
patrons would want us to store their media as well.
It has never been requested.
I'm not sure what you mean by storing media. Can they save their work
on the hard drive?--No. Do we save their work for them on the flash
drive?-No. It's a matter of privacy.
We are about to stop doing this. The former policy did not allow for
outside media. The new policy allows for outside media for storing
files.
This has never come up. Not sure what you mean by storing the media for them.
liability - what if we lose one?
Never considered it. Sounds like more hassle than it is worth.
It's never even occurred to me to do so. It's their media.
I don't think I understand the question. "Store media"? You mean, do
we store their disks for them? Why would we do that? Or do you mean
offer centralized file storage on a server?
Media doesn't belong to the Library. They take their media with them.
Why would they leave it at the Library? Once they buy it, it belongs
to the patron.
Materials never picked up, space issues.
No space.
I have no place to keep it.
storage, and who's going to look after it, and what happens if they
don't come back to get for a long time. we just won't be drawn into
solving any of these issues.
Not enough storage/hardware
Never came up, but no place to store.
Not sure what you mean by "store media." If you mean do we file away
their saved data on floppy, etc. till they come back and ask for it
again, we don't have the space or the time to babysit their property
in this way.
Only temporary during the session they use the computer
It really is the patrons own responsibility to maintain and keep their
own media.
The security measures that our IT staff use (centurion) makes it less
of a concern what might come into the library on removable storage,
therefore we feel it should be the patrons responsibility to keep
track of their storage (just like a notebook or purse...)
I'm not sure, but we get alot of traffic and it would take alot of
staff time to manage this, I think. In our main building, the
computers are available on different floors so that would also be
something to coordinate.
Frankly, it never occurred to me to offer that service. The risk of
loss/damage/security seems too great.
Sometimes we have to explain to them how to do it.
I don't work in public services so I'm not sure the reason. I'm not
sure anyone has asked about this.
Our IT Department believes that almost any patron interaction with a
computer is highly dangerous.
No place to store ; have never had a problem with this decision.
Not sure what you mean by question 5. Do we help patrons with the
process of saving to outside media? Yes. Do we allow patrons to save
to our hard drives? No. Do we physically keep their outside media in
the library? No.
We keep the floppies in the library so that a virus is transfered from
outside computers to our computers via the floppy.
Once the floppy leaves the library, the patron can not use it again in
the library. We store it for them at the circulation desk. Patrons are
not always happy with not using their outside floppy.
Staff time and space are both limited
I don't think we ever considered storing patron's media. Personally, I
don't want the resposnibility of keeping track of it.
We prefer they leave the floppies at the library so they do not have
to be scanned each time they come in.
We used to back in the day before good anti-virus protection, but
haven't for probably about 5 years now. We would always end up with a
big box of floppies that belonged to various people who never came
back to use/claim them again.
why make it our responsiblity for patron's data
We have not attempted to store media for our patrons. We are actively
promoting self service to free us from clerical tasks so we can
redirect our staff/time/energy to higher level activities. (To date
we've moved 4 positions from clerical to
professional/paraprofessional.)Our users value their privacy and their
time.
Do not want to fill up hard drive, and also Deep Freeze will not allow it.
Never even considered it.
No storage room at our circ desk or anywhere else.
We have never considered storing for patrons. I'm not sure why we would.
Why would we want to store the media? We don't store eyeglasses,
running shoes, purses, or other personal accouterments for our
patrons. Makes no sense.
Too hard to keep track
It is the patron's responsibility to store their own documents.
Not sure what you mean by "storing media" -- why would we hold onto
the patrons' media devices, their property?
We don't have the space or staff to look after patron's media
We haven't received request for this kind of service other than
CD-ROM. Because of the conflicts with our security software and the
space requirements of such media led our system to decide against this
type of service.
We don't keep library cards either... Most patrons are working with
multiple computers (school, home, library).
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "store media". Users can store
documents in the My Documents folder which is not wiped out by reboot.
we do not store disks or flash drives for patrons.
No problems so far.
Once they buy it, it is theirs to keep.
We have never been asked to do this. If someone needed us to do it we
would explore whether to provide this service. I am not at all sure
they would *want* their content out of their hands.
No one has ever asked us to store anything and we are not set up to do
so. Patrons sometimes forget to take discs with them. We keep them in
a box in case they come back for them.
No. Patrons are rsponsible for their own personal property.
The media use is too great for us to keep track of. Also we do keep it
because of security and privacy issues.
We have many computer labs on campus. Our students would rather take
their data with them than leave it with us.
Never considered it but if I had it would be that I don't want to be
responsible for their media.
No demand for it and there are libility and privacy issues we would
not want to face.
No room to store. Patrons are responsible for their own disks/CDs/flash.
We do not store media for patrons -- do not have the resources for the
volume of computer users.

7) Do you allow patrons to use media not purchased by you?	
Yes	92	91.09%
No	9	8.91%

8) Please explain why you do or do not allow outside media. Please
include any problems that you have had with patrons based on your
decision.
23 Respondents Skipped question #8	
78 Responses Total	77.23%
We have numerous antivirus and security measures in place that
elimiate threats from patron media.
We were scanning all media for viruses, but have now stopped that. We
use DeepFreeze to keep any changes from being made to the computers.
We want to be as flexible and accomodating as possible.
I really wish we didnt allow anything but usb flash drives, others,
esp floppies are an unending headache. As often as I tell patron not
to use floppies, I dont think they will stop until I remove the
drives, thereby making it impossible to use floppies.
If patrons want to bring their own floppies, we have no problem with
that. We have virus scanners on all of the PCs and we will also
manually scan disks if the patrons desire.
we'd allow CD burning if we could figure out a way that Centurion
Guard would permit it.
If they want to use outside disks, they can be scanned for viruses. Of
course, not everyone asks. More than viruses, we have had problems of
people sticking worn out floppies into the A drive and getting them
stuck.
WIll unlock security if requested
Never had a problem... we have a virus scan on as well as Centurian
Guard so there's just not a problem
We do require that we scan the media for viruses prior to their using
outside media (flash drives). We do not allow outside floppies.
Only if they can use it without downloading.
We've not had any problems with outside media. I think at first there
was reluctance from our IT people because of viruses, etc., but they
have relented.
Our IT department assures outside media will not affect our systems.
Only files, not computer software, are allowed.
Our C drives are disabled so the possibility of getting viruses, etc.
is low so we allow it.
have had no issues with viruses
No reason not to allow outside media. We have security and anti-virus.
This prevents any of the problems that we might encounter.
We sure don't want to get in the business of providing media
ourselves, especially flash drives. Students want to keep copies of
their stuff on their own media.
No reason not to. Anti Virus has advanced to the point we're not
afraid of internal virus propogation, plus other network fixes work
Why not?
we're a medical library, ppl search medline for articles and sometimes
want to take the results away with them. we are part of a teaching
hospital, so students may want to work on their projects and
bring/take their work with them.
We have DeepFreeze, which erases all patron made changes on restart.
People come in with files on disk or flash drive and expect to be able
to use them. This is a small community. Major PR headache to say "no."
We have no problem with outside media, but strongly encourage users to
have USB flash drive.
again Centurion makes it very difficult (I won't say impossible, but I
don't think it has happened in the 8 years they have been using it) to
change the machines...
We have our anti-virus program to scan the media so we don't feel it
is a risk. I should note that at this current moment we don't allow
flash drives, but are waiting on our library board to approve the new
policy to allow their use. We anticipate that the policy will be
approved and USB extention cables (so patrons aren't messing with the
back of the machine or those awkward placements on the Dells) to be in
place and ready for roll out May 1. We have gotten numerous complaints
from patrons not being able to use these devices. We've had to
convience our IT department that they are not the security risk they
imagine, espeically with the Gates Public Security Tool/Microsft
Public Access Tool and Centurion Guard products.
Occasionally the metal part of the floppy disk gets caught in the
drive -- but that could happen with disks purchased from us, too. The
usual problem is that the file that the patron is SURE was on the
disk, isn't. Or that the computer can't read it. With all the security
and virus control we have on the public stations, we haven't had a
problem with infection, etc.
Only a few minor problems. Many come with resumes and papers that they
need to complete.
Our county MIS department manages our pcs and network for us. For many
years they didn't allow outside media. With newer and better security
available they now allow floppies, CDs and flash drives to be used
from the outside. I don't think that we have any pcs with the
capability to save to CD, otherwise we would allow that option, too.
See above, our IT Department, etc. Possibly they want our system as
locked down as possible because they are genuinely understaffed and
can't deal with even one more computer.
It seems easier than keeping track of and ordering all the different
types of media that patrons could want to use.
We use Centurion Guard so supposedly any viruses etc will be wiped out
by end of day
We have had compatibility issues. Our thin clients only recognize USB
drives that do not have security features, and does not recognize all
brands. Personally, I own 1 flash drive that works and 1 that does
not. The reference librarian has discovered this as well. Our machines
do not have CD drives and this has been an ongoing problem.
We allow patrons to use their own media, but we require that they
bring it to us to be scanned for viruses first. Occasionally people
will forget to get their disk scanned, but we've never had a virus
problem. A bigger problem is that sometimes the patron's disk fails,
they lose their data, and they naturally assume that the library is to
blame.
I wasn't here when this policy was implemented but I'm told it for the
same reason as listed in # 6.
Our computers do not have the capability to allow many of the newer
technologies. We try to avoid viruses from outside sources.
Outside media is fine - the only problems we have are patrons leaving
their disks behind.
We have machines that reboot after each patron and changes are erased
after each reboot. We do regular virus and spyware scans and we really
haven't had any problems with are machines becoming infected from
patron media. Also, many times patrons are bringing in work that they
started on a different computer, so it would be impractical to force
them to use media that they purchased from us.
We scan whatever they bring to the library so there aren't any
surprises when they put it in the computer.
Good virus protection and security software are beautiful things.
USB Flash drives okay--realize security risk but we don't have the
staff to sell/monitor
The only problems we have enountered is floppy disk covers(metal)
coming off in disk drive. Not a frequent occurrance .
Hard to control and we do not supply flash drives so they must use their own.
Patrons need to save the work they are doing. Our machines are locked
down in different ways, so hopefully no harm would come to them. We
got our Gates computers in 2001 and so far so good.
We are part of county government, but now have a stand-alone server
for our computer lab, so there is no longer any danger of viruses or
possibility for crashing the operating system. We still have patrons
complaining that we don't sell the newer media, only floppies.
We encourage this. Computers are locked down so outside media could
not be used to place a virus or change settings.
Patrons have been using floppy disks for some time and know how to use
them. They are also becoming more aware of flash and thumb drives, but
are still relatively new in this community. We have virus protection
on the public computers and run deep freeze every night to remove
excess items.
It's their responsibility to provide storage media if they need it.
It is easier for patrons who need to print something and their home
printer is on the fritz. We have had a number of people whose floppys
were dirty which ended up ruining our drives.
We have had very little problems with outside media and we have a good
virus control/security software system installed.
We've had the occasional disk that will not read, but other than that
have had no problems.
Occasionally we get old diskettes stuck in drives. We have enough
security in place so that virus infection has not been an issue.
Just to prevent file infection or issues with our filewalls.
Our computer security is good enough that we are not afraid of viruses
brought in on foreign floppies. But we see many, many problems with
both saving and retrieving data from floppies and CDs brought from
home. We see problems with the ones we sell, but not as many.
Because our public computers are completely reset with each reboot, we
see no reason not to. We do, however, include active anti-virus
software on each computer, and it will scan the external media and
alert the user if it finds a virus.
We use Symantec AV and Deepfreeze so reckon that any viruses,
downloads etc will disappear upon reboot.
Our Centurion Guard and Antivirus software protect our computers from
issues we might have with allowing patrons to work between our
computers and any others they might have access to.
The only outside media we allow are floppy disks and flash drives. We
allow them so the patrons can take their work with them. We
occasionaly have problems with unformated disks, or MAC formated
disks, but have not had any problems with flash drives so far.

9) Do you have any type of hardrive security on your machines?	
No	16	16.84%
Centurion Guard	16	16.84%
Other	26	27.37%
Other (with written-in responses, see below)	46	48.42%
6 Respondents Skipped question #9	
95 Responses Total	94.06%
DriveShield
DeepFreeze
symantic Antivirus
Deep Freeze
Fortres, Policy Editor
Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit on some
Deep Freeze and something else (I'm not in Systems)
Websense
Our IT people would know, but I'm not sure what we have. I know that
they are very security conscious, so it's probably something very
secure.
? blocks access to hard drive
DeepFreeze
DeepFreeze
Fortres
user profiles
Fortress
Faronics Deepfreeze
DeepFreeze -- by far the best in our experience
Centurion Guard's upgrade - Cornerstone
I'm not sure what -- the MIS folks take care of it.
Everything is on the County's system. I have no idea what they have.
We filter the children's department Internet but not the adult
department computers.
WYSE thin clients
Only our antivirus
Gates configuration, Windows profiles
DeepFreeze
DeepFreeze
Deep freeze
Deep Freeze
Deep Freeze
I don't know
Not sure
Fortress
I am not sure what brand it is
deep freeze
not sure
Comprise SAM security software
currently homegrown but looking at third party
Clean Sweep, Public Web Browser
PCSecure, Active Directory,
Citadel Secure PC (I think that's the name)
Deep Freeze
Deepfreeze
Symantec
Yes, but I don't know the specifics.
Deep Freeze
deepfreeze
Deep Freeze





--
**************)0(**************
Mrs. C. Michele Haytko
Montgomery County-
      Norristown Public Library
MC-NPL Computer Lab
1001 Powell Street
Norristown, PA 19401
610-278-5100 Ext. 141

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." -Gandhi