Comments on: Print Management in libraries: friend of foe?

By: Doris

Doris — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:48:40 +0000

One library I know of installed a print management system but doesn’t charge for printing. They found that making patrons physically release print jobs cut down on wasted printing. The savings was enough to pay for the print management system. A nice compromise that helps save resources.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:28:07 +0000

Just take an ‘average’ amount of printing for one patron for one year..tally up the charges..and at the beginning of the academic year add it to their tuition. If they don’t use it..so what? I have to pay school taxes to educate children, I don’t have children. I don’t get a refund. Any ’surplus” can go to updating and maintaining equipment.

By: jammin

jammin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:40:12 +0000

After many years, we started using a print management system at our public library.

Trying to strike a balance between the pros & cons of strict print management vs none at all, we’ve set it up in such a way that for most patrons and most purposes, light and occasional use of our printers is pretty much free. Easy and convenient. Whereas heavier use and abuse is charged, and thereby reimbursed and/or curbed. It has worked well so far, and the staff are happy. No patron complaints, either.

Every patron basically gets $3 worth of free printing a month. That’s about 30 pages B&W, less in full color. It has been enough for those patrons that don’t need to print much, or might print a decent size job once in a while. Those that print more than that are few enough that it doesn’t take a ton of staff time to credit to take their cash, and adjust their balance accordingly. Patron’s accounts are “topped up” monthly. If they are under $3, they end up with $3. If they are over $3, they just keep whatever they have.

Having the extra popup telling people how many pages it is and how much it costs definitely reduces wasted print pages, and accidentally large print jobs.

Less waste. Fewer accidents. But still unobtrusive, convenient, and free for most. Wasn’t that expensive or time consuming either.

By: Print Management in libraries: friend of foe? – Librarian in Black « Technology Advisory Committee

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:06:18 +0000

[...] Print Management in libraries: friend of foe? – Librarian in Black Something to think about. Read the blog article Print Management in libraries: friend… [...]

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:33:42 +0000

I can see how some libraries would need to charge for printing as the cost could accumulate quite quickly. But as long as it is economically feasible, I say its best not to charge. I work in a small college library and we do not charge for printing anywhere on campus. We recently switched our two library printers for one that gives users the option to scan to digital format and save on a thumb drive. In the first month, we have 41 pages scanned vs. 17,495 pages printed. Read my entire post at http://thisthatotherthing.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/copy-machines-%E2%80%93-paper-still-beats-going-green/

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:17:19 +0000

I have no problem with charging for printing – I don’t think we owe it to patrons. My experience has been primarily at a large multi-campus Community College on the west coast, fairly affluent students, 72 PCs in the library …. and a one-campus Community College library on the east coast in a rural area with a lot of borderline poverty student body. In both cases, students ran up immense print jobs until we started charging. In th e first library, a print management system was installed and students had to purchase cards and charge them up occasionally throughout the semester. Printing went down dramamatically after a learning curve of about three or four weeks. Printing became a student responsibility and Librarians didn’t have to play “Cop” anymore.
In my current situation on the East Coast, print management would be a wonderful tool for traffic control, but the administration will not pay for it. We still have way too many “accidental” print jobs and a nice +70-year-old staff member at the circulation desk that students take advantage of.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:22:27 +0000

I work in a large city library system and at the time we got Print Management, I ordered the supplies for our Main Library computer lab. Prior to PM we went through 2-3 cases (20-30 reams) of paper a week, after only about 3-4 reams a week. We also found large print jobs left on the printers at the end of the day and got a lot of complaints from people who printed and the prints disappeared from the printer before they could get up to pick them up.

In addition to a significant increase in collections for printing, we were able to protect our users information. Sending a job to the printer did not cost anything, as it didn’t print until they released the print job. By marketing this as a cost savings for them and something to help secure their information, we were able to make many more people happy about Print Management than we had angry about the extra steps.

By: Julie

Julie — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:40:39 +0000

As a patron, I don’t mind paying to print. It’s one of those extra fees that makes sense to me. I get that paper and toner cost money, and it’s still cheaper and more convenient to print and copy at my library than to do it somewhere else (I’m in the library at some point each week anyway, but it’s not like I’m taking the kids to Kinko’s for story hour). Print management software seems like it could be a real bonus for allaying any abusers.

By: susan

susan — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:36:42 +0000

Collecting cash for prints is a real waste of staff time too – print management software sounds like the answer – perhaps with any request over 50 pages being flagged for librarians permission (at their discretion). Another issue is copyright – perhaps moreso in Canada where our regs are stricter. Viewing some materials isn’t in violation – printing them may be – should we tactily encourage this?
I am all for eliminating needless bureaucracy – at one library I worked at we eliminated sign up times for the computers – it worked great – often patrons self managed – and only occasionally would we have to ask someone to leave when another person needed a computer – mind you this was in an academic library – prob. wouldn’t work in a public one.
Read with interest Michael Golrick’s article re coin box/no coin box on copier – I worked at a small library where I estimated I spent 30% of my day making change and administering the copier – was this good use of a librarians time? The coin box I talked admin. into ordering was worth every penny spent (I got a reconditioned one) – and it seemed to improve patron satisfaction with the copier service overall since they didn’t need to contact a busy staff person to assist with copies. Then, there is still the copyright issue. Perhaps libraries should not have printers or copiers at all.

By: Greg Schwartz

Greg Schwartz — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:23:49 +0000

We don’t charge for printing, but we have print management software which we use to allocate patrons a certain number of free pages a month.