HIT: CD Rom Towers, etc. (part 2)

[Mary Helen Fischer <jlf@FOOTNET.COM>]

Hi! I am the media specialist for a junior high - grades 7,8,9 - about 1,000
students. We moved into our new media center last January.
Here are my thoughts:
1. I think the trend is to move away from CD Towers and to run things off
servers.  This is what we are doing. And yes, more than one student can access
the same program simultaneously.

2. I have two older model computers that I use for dedicated catalog search
stations.  They are labeled as search stations and are used for nothing else.
When I first set this up, I didn't think 2 stations would be enough at all. I
was in a panic about it.  However, it seems to be very sufficient. No problem at
all! We have the capability of networking the patron catalog to all the
computers, but after a year of use, I have never seen the need to do it.

3. I would spend any extra money on fiction books (paperbacks) and reference
materials.  More and more, students and teachers are utilizing electronic
resources for their non-fiction research.  You will still need a good core
selection of non-fiction, but the students and teachers will be looking for
good, current fiction books.

--------

> 1.  Is a CD-ROM tower networked to workstations in the library and to
> classrooms the right way to go?  If so, what should the capacity of the
> tower be?  Will more than one user be able to access the same program at the
> same time?  What is a ballpark figure for the cost of such a tower?
> Recommendations on brand, other variables?  If this is not a good idea,
what is?


It is a good idea, but only if your teachers can guide the students as
they use the CDs in the classroom. Otherwise, just network to the
library.  Over estimate the capacity since you don't want to change CDs
in the towers.  What do you need to network?  An encyclopedia, a
periodical index/full text program, possibly SIRS.  Other programs can
probably work on free-standing machines (and will be much cheaper.) Acess
is dependant on the license you purchase.  Look for site licenses as that
will give you unlimited access.  Reader's guide prices their products
based on numbers of concurrnet logins, for example.  Site licenses are
more expensive.  Brands?  Get one that maps the CDs as server volumes.
SCSI Express and Microtest Discview are good ones.  Cost will be over
$3000 for a decent setup.

>
> 2.  Should we plan to have our automated catalog on the same workstations as
> our CDs?  Or separate stations for each?  Seems logical to me to combine but
> I've never worked in that situation.  Will we need more or fewer stations if
> we combine?  We can/will have internet access on any or all stations.

Why not?  Don't maintain separate networks.  TWO headaches for the price
of one.

>
> 3.  How many stations should we have at a minimum?  There will be no card
> catalog and our print collection will necessarily be small to being with,
> making the demand on electronic resources higher.  Is it cost effective to
> spend for an additional station or turn that same amount into print materials?

We plan for 10 student stations per middle school.  We also make at least
half the stations standup stations so students don't "park."

-------

I can tell you our experience.  WE have a 6 cd tower networked to all our
stations, along with the online catalog.  If it is a networkable CD-ROM,
more than one person can access it at a time.  But if it is multi-media,
it really slows it down.  So we put our most media intensive CD-ROMs on
the hard drive (don't ask me how to do it, our volunteer tech person did
it).  Anyway, it works well.  As for work stations, in our school we
started with 2 for 450 students, and now have 12 for 550 students.  They
can all be busy, but I would think you want at least 6.  Hope this helps.

--------

>1.  Is a CD-ROM tower networked to workstations in the library and to
>classrooms the right way to go?  If so, what should the capacity of the
>tower be?  Will more than one user be able to access the same program at the
>same time?  What is a ballpark figure for the cost of such a tower?
>Recommendations on brand, other variables?  If this is not a good idea,
>what is?
I like a tower because you load the CD's that you have selected and you
don't touch them again (except for updates).  Depending on your license,
multiple users can access the same cd at the same time with no loss of time
or quality.  I am intersted in the possibility of down-loading CD's to a
giant hard drive because I have heard that access from a hard drive is
20-25 times faster.  My tech guys say that the only problem  comes when you
have to clear the HD and reinstall the updates.  You might want to ask
about this especially for a large school.  Towers cost from 2000-5000 for 7
bays.  Most brands are just as good as any other--just don't overbuy-some
towers have much more power built=in than you would ever need.  You also
need linking software from the tower to the server.  I think it's called
SCSI, but am not sure.  At the high school we had 14 CD's available, but I
think 7 would be adequate for a Jr high-
an encyclopedia with atlas and dictionary,
a magazine database,
a SIRS product,
and one for each curriculum area, like
Time Magazine almanac for social science,
Magill's Science or an anatomy CD for science,
a Gale authors product for English.
I wouldn't buy more because you plan to have Internet access and that will
provide access to college info, career stuff, news services, biography,
etc.  (One of my friends now buys on-line access to the Britannica rather
than installing it at the library.  He says it is trouble-free, and the
cost for his school is similar.)
>
>2.  Should we plan to have our automated catalog on the same workstations as
>our CDs?  Or separate stations for each?  Seems logical to me to combine but
>I've never worked in that situation.  Will we need more or fewer stations if
>we combine?  We can/will have internet access on any or all stations.
Absolutely.  With today's tech solutions there is no reason to reserve one
station for any single dedicated function. Your vendor can set up a menu
screen that shows all the choices, and the student just types the letter or
number of his/her choice.  We included a word processing program, too.
I even had access to every database on the circulation stations because you
just never know what you might be doing when you need an answer.
Naturally, you don't have circ on the student stations.
>
>3.  How many stations should we have at a minimum?  There will be no card
>catalog and our print collection will necessarily be small to begin with,
>making the demand on electronic resources higher.  Is it cost effective to
>spend for an additional station or turn that same amount into print materials?

My ideal is to have one station for every two students in the average sized
class (17 stations for a class of 34).  I don't think every kid needs to be
conducting research at the same time on the computers if you have designed
a good research project.  Some will be at the computers, some will be using
print, some will be in discussion groups problem-solving with their team.
I had 1 station for every three students, and it was usually enough except
when the stray student bopped in from a class with a research need.  If the
classrooms have access, this won't happen to you.  Remember that the
network version of the CD's are sold with licenses for the number of users.
This cost will influence your decision, too, because you have to pay more
for a multi-user license will take away funds from hardware and vice versa.
The classrooms count as users, too!

You will have to have a core of reference materials.  But I kept mine short
and sweet--about 200 volumes for the high school and four sets of print
encyclopedias (1 in Spanish).

 Best of luck to you.  Again, my strong advice is to hire a vendor who
knows what he is doing and stick with him!

-----

We have a system called MICROTEST DISCPORT PRO.  The software runs off the
fileserver and the ROM drive are attached to a hub. Each hub will support
up to 14 drives I understand.  We have two hubs each with 7 drives
currently.  We will be adding more later and it should be relatively
inexpensive to do so, we hope.


We combined the electronic catalog and the networked ROM drives.  We have
standalone ROM drives in a different area.  I planned our new facility for
6 computer terminals for each class in the media center.  We have 3 pods of
6 computers for the three classes we can seat at the same time.

The 6 units for each class is BARELY adequate because of the amount of
full-text information we subscribe to as a new school.  At my old school we
had MAS but not the full-text.  Here we the the full-text Elite, as well
other full-text ROMs and the seat time really increased.  I suppose if I
were doing it again I would go for more, although all of those computers
take a lot of space.



Thanks again to all of you--hope I have time to digest all of this and make
some informed decisions before the next issue crops up.

Happy holidays, everyone, and enjoy your vacations!

Mary Helen


Mary Helen Fischer, District Librarian
Buckeye Union School District
Shingle Springs CA
jlf@footnet.com