Here is the information I received on my request for ways to control
printing and printing costs. I think that the VendPrint was the program I
saw. Have passed the information on to our tech guy, see what he thinks.
I have also started charging for copies, appealed to the teachers to
limit printing which got a good response from them ( except the most
obviouse offender who seems oblivious) offered to teach note taking
skills. Will see how this works. Also will try to move the printer-- it
is on the desk but the students can reach it too easily so they tend to
grab their copies before we can get to them.
Darlene Yasick
Media Specialist
Hopkins High School
lib027yas1@juno.com
Only the mediocre man is always at his best-- Somerset Maugham
We charge 75 cents for each color page printed. We also provide
photo quality paper for $1.50. We run a brisk business. Next
year we plan to upgrade to a color laser printer.
I sneak a freebie in here and there when I feel a student is in
need. But the prices don't seem to be a hardship for most. They
spend a bundle on photographic quality reproductions.
----------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to do something like this, too. I looked into something
like the system they have in the university library where printing is
controlled at a print station that accepts money or cards that can be
recharged. It was very expensive, almost $6000 for software for 35
computers and the print station.
We charge for every print made in the library from the library machines
(except for our own needs) they are 50c (HK) a page (about 7c US)(this
is the same price as for a photocopy) this cuts down on the number of
pages that kids *print* off the internet - they only print what they
need. We don't have a colour printer but we will be getting one - and we
will still charge for copies. Costs are high and we need to recoup them.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is what we do at Lawrence High School. Each student receives 10
free
prints. All students carry a student planner and one page is devoted to
prints in the library. We stamp their planner for each print and after
they
have used their 10 free prints, they pay .05 per page (black and white).
We
do not have a color printer. The art department has a color printer and
they charge $1.00 per page. We use their color printer a lot and we
purchase for their department color cartridges. Color prints are quite
expensive and we feel we should purchase 1 set of cartridges. I hope
this
gives you some ideas.-----------------------------------------
I also have been looking for this type of utility, for the
very same reasons you laid out. Novell 5.x NDS *will* allow
you to limit printing, but only in units of 1,000. It's not
really useful in a school setting.
However, two weeks ago I received a mailing from a Des
Moines, Iowa company called VendPrint, Inc.
http://www.vendprint.com/ They have a software package that
could solve the problem.
Take a look at the home page and click on the "information"
link. Then click on the "VendPrint description in PDF
format" link. On the fourth page is the blurb for the "K12
Print Monitor" module. Essentially, in this module, once a
student makes a print request, the VendPrint software
intercepts the print spool and holds the print job in a
cache. The student has to go to a central location in the
library or lab, and have the print job released by an
"authorized" person. If you charge for color printing, you
can collect the fee before releasing the print job. If you
have each student log into the network, the name of the
logged-in student will also appear on the print queue. You
can see exactly *who* ordered the 15 copies of the thrasher
web site. ;-)
I have spoken with the people at VendPrint several times
over the last two weeks, and they seem to be very
responsive. The product has been marketed only to public
libraries and universities, which is why the K12 environment
has not heard of it. They will respond with references to
libraries in your area that have the software. I've called
one reference, a public library, and they love the system.
This product looks very interesting, and I hope to be
ordering the software in the very near future.
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