Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!blake!djo7613
From: djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Setting up a software "checkout" system
Keywords: library, checkout
Message-ID: <518@blake.acs.washington.edu>
Date: 10 Jan 89 18:47:27 GMT
Reply-To: djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu (Dick O'Connor)
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 22

One of our work units has 11 similarly-configured XT and AT machines.
There are a few pieces of software that (for budgetary and usage reasons)
I would like to set up in a "check-out" library for users to borrow when
the need arises.  Applications such as graphics and highend statistics
packages are examples of the software I'm thinking of.  We simply don't
have the budget to purchase a copy for each machine, and couldn't justify
it anyway, with the extremely sporadic need our average user has.

Two suggestions that came out of a little brainstorming were to purchase
Bernoulli drives for each machine (storing the software on Bernoulli 
cartridges) and to purchase an external tape drive unit that could
double as a backup device as well as a portable software source.
I'm researching the costs of these ideas now.

Have any of you installed a similar setup to meet "library" needs like
these?  I would be very interested in your experiences or suggestions.
Mail or post, whichever is convenient, and I'll summarize findings to the
net.  Thanks as always for your help!

-Dick O'Connor   djo7613@blake.acs.washington.edu
 Washington Department of Fisheries