Many thanks to those of you who responded to my query about the merits of using card readers to control printing in health care libraries. This seems to be something that many librarians have considered in order to reduce waste and control costs.
Of those who e-mailed me, all who have introduced card readers appear not to have regrets and to feel that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages! The benefits mentioned include a significant reduction in waste, and maintenance of income to balance the expenditure involved in providing printing and copying facilities, especially where printing from e-journals has increased whilst photocopying of print journals has decreased. A couple of respondents suggest that there is little resistance to paying for printing, adding that users who have come through higher education expect to pay for both printing and photocopying.
The most common problem on the down side seems to be the risk of users being stuck with other people's abandoned print jobs. There obviously needs to be a means for people to be able to proceed with or cancel print jobs, and lots of notices for the unwary.
Some librarians mention that they would prefer not to charge for library-related printing (from databases and catalogues), but do not find this practical. One respondent mentions the making a "free vend" card available for this purpose, at least during staffed open hours. Another sells high value cards to departments, so that individuals do not bear the cost of work-related printing.
Cost-effectiveness is obviously highly dependent on the circumstances of each library. A colleague of mine has just had "boxes" bought for her library's printers from someone else's budget; I shall go away and re-do my sums!
See below for the individual replies.
Helen
Helen Bingham
Library Services Manager
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Education Centre Library
St Mary's Hospital
PORTSMOUTH PO3 6AD
Tel 023 9228 6000 ext.4855
Fax 023 9286 6847
E-mail [log in to unmask]
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We are a busy multidisciplinary library that use copy cards for some of our computers
as well as for photocopying. We have always found it to be cost effective and fairly hassle free.
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We recently introduced such a system with few of the anticipated problems.
We have only five networked machines, and the system might be less
successful with a larger number. The volume of waste is now minimal and we
are re-filling our printer once or twice weekly rather than daily. Users
seem quite willing to pay for printing even though it had previously been
free of charge. The only problem has been users sending items to print,
discovering they need a card and abandoning the print job which then prints
out on the next user's ticket. To prevent this we have posted instructions
to users to ensure they press the cancel button on the printer to delete any
abandoned jobs before sending items. This they quickly learn to do!
One nice feature of the new Emos box, that we don't have on our photocopier
boxes, is an alarm that tells the user his card is still in there, so
avoiding the stash of left cards we acquire from the other photocopiers.
As for cost effectiveness: it will take a very long time to re-coup the cost
of the Emos box.
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We introduced an EMOS box system last year and are well pleased with it. It
has certainly cut down the large amount of waste we used to have and, of
course, reduced our costs. Have experienced some minor problems with users
not reading 'instructions' (press print button, insert card, press 'go' on
the printer.) The EMOS system works by telling the user that there's no
paper in the tray (which there is); the user then tells us there's no
paper, rather than inserting an EMOS card and pressing 'Go'. Another problem
occurs if one user sends a print command but fails to insert an EMOS card,
and goes away; the next user finds s/he is getting someone else's prints.
Can be avoided, again, if instructions are read. Might be problematic if
libraries unmanned.
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My experience is that, in general, it is a good thing. It's a positive
revenue stream and it also discourages abuse, like printing hundreds of CVs
for free in the evening.
We offer a "free vend" card to those doing library-related printing (a sort
of honesty box, since we don't stand over them), and those who do private
printing use the EMOS cards.
The downside is that, as the library is open outside office hours, people
doing "library" printing have to pay and use a card then. We keep the "free
vend" card locked up in the office, for obvious reasons! An even bigger
problem, is that outside office hours and despite a forest of notices
telling them that the printer doesn't work without a card, people hit the
print button many times in an evening. Nothing happens, so they go off,
leaving the first unfortunate user to put one in with an uncontrollable
flood of airline bookings, emails etc.
I saw a demo CD from a company called Info Tech Supply Ltd which offers
print management software that doesn't allow printing unless a valid card is
in the reader. It sounds good, if it does what it says.
http://www.itsltduk.com/print.htm
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We have had an EMOS card reader here for >6 years. We sell copy cards at the
counter. Departments are encouraged to buy large denomination ones for their
members. People can keep their cards in a card index box on the counter if
they like. It's slightly faffy (especially the departmental cards bit) but
works fairly well and contributes to the exchequer. You could do a lot
worse.
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We introduced a pharos print control system in May this year. It is an EMOS
product and is compatible with our EMOS photocopy controls. This enables
users to put money on to their cards and use the card for either service.
One valuable feature is that when an item is sent to print the pharos system
clearly indicates how much it would cost the user to print and what funds
are available on their card and it gives them the option to proceed or
cancel. This is useful when printing from the Internet as users sometimes
inadvertently send large documents to print.
We instantly noticed a substantial drop in paper usage when the system was
introduced. Users were being much more selective in what they chose to
print. The only complaint that we have had is from users wanting to print
records from our catalogue or databases. Some think that this should be
free. Sadly the system does not allow us to differentiate between types of
data sent to print.
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I've not done this myself yet, but I intend to introduce charges for
printing as soon as it is feasible. Like you, I will be using photocopy
cards (rechargable Gestetner/NRG in our case) and I also hope to eliminate
our small individual printers (very expensive for toner cartridges) and
replace them with a single larger networked printer. You can even set
digital photocopiers up for printing from networked PCs. This has worked
well in our library office, allowing us to dispose of 3 small printers.
However, I'm not sure how cost effective this would be if a dedicated
machine was needed for the readers.
I can't give stats for printing, but, with the growth of e-journals which
can be printed for free, the photocopying of journals has dropped here from
88328 in 1999 to 60893 in 2001. As we charge for photocopying this has lost
us a lot of income and, with a fixed budget the growth of free printing is
not sustainable. Staff have mostly gone through university where they
generally have to pay for printing and photocopying so there shouldn't be to
much resistance to the introduction of charges, particularly if it justified
by maintaining or developing library services.
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I realise we can't be classed as a Trust library but we use EMOS with
printers and find it fairly hassle free. We have a re-charge station for
cards and they work both on the copiers and the printers.
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We've never charged for printing as I've always reckoned it's too much
hassle, so personal and work-related all go for free. Since I buy at least
half the photocopy paper out of someone else's budget it's not too bad!!
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