Tech: Need to upgrade

[Judy Cunningham <jcunning1@HOME.COM>]

I'm asking for your advice because we desperately need to upgrade our
computers and software at my high school library AND we have the money!
We're using Follett's Unison running in DOS.  The system is extremely slow
and has frozen up or quit dozens of times while we were checking out
textbooks this past week.  (We even put a fan near each computer but it
didn't help.)   The wedge scanners have also misread the barcodes numerous
times.  We currently can run 2 stations from the server.  We tried running a
3rd station but it made the situation far worse, so we went back to 2.  We
don't yet have an automated card catalog and are not networked to the rest
of the school.  I'm new to the school and am not sure what version we have,
the server and one workstation are probably several years old, while one
workstation is brand new and it experienced the same problems as the old
workstation.

My plan is to:
Have 4-5 workstations--3 at the circ desk, 1 at the textbook window, 1
behind my desk
Use our old machines as card catalogs--web based
Network the card catalog throughout the school--the wiring is almost in
place
Move the server out of an overhead cupboard so that it is accessible, gets
out of a hot spot, and get
a zip drive for back-up
Upgrade the Follett system, going to Textlink from Textbook Plus (already
purchased, not yet installed)
Install Accelerated Reader (not yet installed anywhere) onto a different
server

Am I on the right track?  Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks so much,
Judy Cunningham
jcunning1@home.com

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