Vaughan: Lied Library @ four years: Technology Never Stands Still

This article chronicled the improvements made to an already state of the art library which opened at UNLV four years ago.

I was surprised to find out that they use Innovative's Innopac Millennium software because the library in which I work also uses the same software to deal with cataloguing and patron accounts.

I found their response to patron printing numbers expanding by 49% a little excessive: "the library implemented an override print queue that allows staff to override print jobs." I think the best solution would have been to charge more money for the black and white print outs.

The article went into some detail in explaining the computer acquisition of summer 2003. It bears repeating that "equipment and software purchases are a huge expense for any library," and that "licensing and support costs run into the tens of thousands of dollars per year."
According to the article, "redundant hardware, capable support staff and vendor support all contribute to a well functioning library."

While I was at West Chester University, as in Lied Library, they also installed Deep Freeze Software which causes all user installed software, background changes and system modifications to be erased. I think it's the best security software to have on a public computer network.

I found it typical and interesting that Lied Library's problem with Adobe Acrobat files being printed mirror-imaged could be attributed to a staff member rotating the images as they load.