[Web4lib] Mouse pads

[Phillip Whitford]

We haven't bought mouse pads in years so if I may here are a couple of
alternative suggestions: If you can ditch the ball mice and go with
optical mice. You can buy MS optical mice by the case (I think that's
about ten mice) for under ten dollars each from suppliers like Global
and Softchoice. No more balls or mouse internals to clean. They work on
many desktops without mouse pads (test one on your desks first) so maybe
you won't need the pads. 

If you can't buy the optical mice, or they won't work on your desks, you
may be able to get pads for free. Try checking with your automation
system vendor and see if they will give you their promotional mouse
pads. You can also check with your state library and see if they have
any promotion pads to give away. Your local military recruiting office
is another possible source of free pads. Although, in our experience the
military themed ones tend not to be as durable as the ones provided by
the automation vendor or state library. When we were using mouse pads we
often could outfit the entire library with them for free. The chamber of
commerce, local tourism office, and computer vendors are all possible
sources of free pads. 

Many of the free pads we obtained turned out to be very durable and of
high quality. While some of the free pads may not solve your mouse
cleaning problem at least you will have more money for cleaning
supplies.


Phillip B. Whitford
Associate Director for Support Services
Braswell Memorial Library
Rocky Mount, NC 27804
Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my organization. 
-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Judy McBrian
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 12:43 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org; Weblib
Subject: [Web4lib] Mouse pads

Excuse the cross posting please

I know, this is a really elementary question, but I would like to save
myself a trip to the "mouse pad" store ;-)

First of all we're a not too large library and my job description is
cataloger, Systems Admin., and whoever-answers-the-phone is reference
desk.

In the spring we bought some mouse pads with mircroban (seemed like a
good idea) that had a surface that was not particularly hard, (sorta
like flannel) After a summer of teens on myspace , etc. ad
nausaum...I've found really grungy mouse pads and totally crudded up
mice wheels.

I mean, I  used to clean these things about once a month with a little
dirt inside them.  Now I find that after only a week the movable parts
inside are really coated with bits and bots of dirt and whatever, and
the mouse pads are filthy even with daily cleaning. because it seems the
surface of the pad holds onto everything, and then the mouse sucks it
up.

What Id  LIKE to do is march the patrons to the sink, hand them some
soap with the  command "WASH"

Since that's hardly seems practical, I'm asking for your wisdom in
finding an affordable hard surface mouse pad that won't pick up the dirt
so easily and hence pass it into the mouse workings.

Web sites are not too helpful in describing the surface on these pads
unless they are really, really nice...and expensive.  (I've seen some
made of glass...gee, that'd be great for this particular public
setting...)

Thanks
Judy McBrian
Boonville Warrick Co Public Library




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