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Do you use thin clients at your library?

9 Jan 2009 - 2:45pm | Sarah Washburn

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Here at TechSoup, we've been talking quite a bit about the benefits of using thin clients at libraries and public labs.

We know some of you are thinking about it too, as we've received numerous requests to hold webinars on the topic. We've also heard from libraries who use Userful products, like Phyliss Reed, Director of the Ruidoso Public Library in Ruidoso, NM. And, we've covered the topic in our latest Cookbook.

We'd love to know more from you about your thoughts on thin clients--do you use them? Would you like to know more? We plan to offer more opportunities to learn more about this topic, but first we'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below AND share your thoughts in our latest poll. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: Ruidoso Public Library thin client userful virtualization

We're looking into them

Submitted by Buzzy (not verified) on 10 January 2009 - 7:40am.

Our small library is planning on switching to thin clients. We just received one of the recent slate of Gates grants and hope to replace all of our stations with thin clients. Our public computers currently all run Ubuntu, and our thin clients likely will, too. We'd love more information!

Thin Clients at your library

Submitted by Sarah Washburn on 12 January 2009 - 1:59pm.

Hi Buzzy,

Sounds like you have a big (and exciting) project ahead of you! We were just discussing testing thin clients in a Linux environment, so it's great to hear you plan to use Ubuntu at your library.

We'd love to know more about your particular plans and situation; please get in touch with us (maintainit AT techsoup DOT org) so we can make sure we create content and hold events that meet your needs. Thanks Buzzy!

-sarah

Hi Buzzy, If your library

Submitted by Kevin Lo (not verified) on 14 January 2009 - 11:14am.

Hi Buzzy, If your library is already running Ubuntu then you can probably stick to it, though if it is indeed a thin client the client itself would have no OS running per se. What do these clients need to run? any cataloging software or is it strictly Internet access terminals? -Kevin

thin clients

Submitted by Joy Neal (not verified) on 6 February 2009 - 2:10pm.

We recently got rid of all our stand alone public computers (Aug. 2008) and went to 5 thin clients. I would add more in a heart beat. We had a few bugs to work out since they don't have disc drives for those people who bring in a floppy or cd and need to pull off information. We also had one particular flash drive company that it didn't recognize. Those have been worked out and we are delighted with the speed and reliability we have had so far. They also are a great space saver for our library which is space challenged.

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