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Morning Sara:
With a student populace of 8,000 many having assigned homework
where they have to use the internet others just discovering the
usefulness and fun of the system our 9 public access terminals were
quickly inundated.  Sometimes during peak times it was so bad there was
standing room only. We tried appealing to the students/faculty good
nature regarding sharing the computers and it soon became apparent that
we were wasting a lot of time and energy monitoring these workstations.
We now have a time clock system that works beautifully and here is a
summary of our policy and procedure and I'll be glad to send you the
complete one page policy which we leave at every terminal if requested.

Patrons must register at the reference desk in order to use the Internet,
multimedia...workstations.  They must present a valid current ID.

Patrons may only use the workstations for thirty minutes.

The library staff will give the patron a slip with the current time
stamped on it. (We take their ID paper clip it to another slip with the
time stamped on in and put it on a display - we made this- that has a
pocket with the number of each workstation on it).

If all workstations are occupied and another patron needs it we check the
display board to see which patron's time is soon up.  We inform the
patron at that workstation how much time them have so they can relinquish
it at the appropriate time so the next person wanting it.  This is fair and
everyone knows how much time they have left or how much time they have to wait.

If there are no other patrons waiting to use a workstation then the
first person may continue using it until needed.

There are no registrations made in advance or accepted by phone or third
party.  You have to do this in person.

If a person doesn't have a valid ID (visitors, alumni, someone forgot, etc.)
they can use the computers, although they are not officially registered,
but must relinquish it immediately, regardless of how long they may have
been using it.

Use of the internet workstations will end 15 minutes before the library
closes.


Note: this is extra work for us but in the end it is proving very Very
successful. No arguments (ok there are still a few) and everyone knows
exactly where they stand.  The time clock (sometimes I feel we work in a
factory) was not that expensive, it is a little noisy, we jump up and down
a bit, you can used recycled Choice cards or have cards cut on heavier
stock (our wonderful print shop did this for us on left over paper) and you
can use something other than a time clock but it may involve extra paper
work. The Reference staff is very happy.

I hope this helps it took a lot of brainstorming but the results are
worth it.



--
Paula Epstein, Co-ordinator of Library Outreach
Columbia College, 600 S. Michigan, Chicago, Il 60605-1996
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(312)663-1600x5353