Low-Cost Prototype OPAC System

[Cary Gordon]

I am fan of single-board computers. I have a Pi and one of my first
computers was a '70s vintage Rockwell that had a thermal printer on
the board.

That said, I think that taking this approach to building a kiosk,
while it might be fun, is not all that efficient. My first choice
would be an android tablet. You can buy a name brand 10" android
tablet for about $200 and an off-brand for about $150 (thinking
WalMart).

I can't imagine putting together a package like that using an SBC for
that price. Just the monitor would be more than that.

Cary

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 12:01 PM, Christian Pietsch
<chr.pietsch+web4lib at googlemail.com> wrote:
> John,
>
> this is so cool, especially considering that the costly Kiosk PCs my
> home town's public library has just acquired do not offer more than
> your extremely cheap solution: they run a web browser.
>
> In contrast to your solution, this public library (like so many) has
> wasted money ...
> - on many licenses for Microsoft's Windows operating systems
> - on licenses for proprietary software to keep Windows in check
> - to buy the powerful computers required to run Windows
> - and harmed the environment because of the hight energy consumption
>   of these computers.
>
> Congratulations for avoiding these pitfalls!
>
> My own academic library offers Linux-based PCs as OPAC terminals which
> by and large avoid these pitfalls as well, although I do hope they
> will eventually be replaced with more energy-efficient hardware such
> as the options you mentioned.
>
> Cheers
> Christian
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 01:49:25PM -0500, John Lolis wrote:
>> Has anyone else been looking into a low cost alternative to the usual OPAC computers?
>>
>> Here at White Plains Public Library, we're testing the feasibility of an APC system board that retails for about $50.  I have it booting Raspbian Linux from a microSD card and running Chromium in kiosk mode to access our catalog.  So far after about a month in operation, it's looking good.
>>
>> See http://whiteplainslibrary.org/2012/11/our-new-low-cost-experimental-online-catalog-pc/ and http://whiteplainslibrary.org/?p=3780 for more information, the latter page having detailed information about its setup.
>>
>> Btw, I also looked into the less expensive Raspberry Pi; however, it only provides HDMI out, and no VGA.
>
>
> --
>   Christian Pietsch <http://purl.org/net/pietsch>
>   LibTec (Library Technology and Knowledge Management),
>   Bielefeld University Library, Bielefeld, Germany
>
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> 2012-12-18



-- 
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com

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2012-12-18