Here's several questions to think about regarding computers in your library. Do you have some sort of electronic reservation system like SAM? Do you limit how much time they can use the computer? Does any children use the computer for research? Do kids crowd around your computers?
Here's my answers to the questions. We do have an electronic reservation system which is SAM. It does break down and have problems from time to time but its good because kids cannot use the computer over 1 hour and only 1/2 at a time and if its busy, they must electronically make a reservation and only take 1/2 at a time. The computer lets them know when its their turn. Some kids do use the computer for research and I try to inform them that google or wikipedia aren't foolproof research tools and I tell them about our research databases for kids and kid friendly search engines. We did have kids crowd around the computer and when it had gotten bad, I shut off the computer. We used to ONLY have ONE computer, now we have 4. It's a lot better.
We have 3 computers and just use a paper sign-in sheet. We are going to be upgrading them this summer and will probably add a reservation software at that time. That get 30 minutes, more if there's no one waiting. They only get more than an hour if they are working on homework.
ReplyDeleteWe only give them an hour but sometimes but rarely will make an exception for homework. If its just a matter of printing out something for an assignment, I'll do it on my ref. computer.
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