[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Open Source Time and Print Management

[Sharon Foster]

I would be thrilled if a print management system simply notified a
staff workstation that "station A just printed 12 color pages." I've
dealt with coin boxes and they are a bigger headache than some patrons
I've met.

Sharon M. Foster, JD, MLS
Technology Librarian
http://firstgentrekkie.blogspot.com/
"Have you tried switching it off and on again?"





On Fri, Nov 6, 2009 at 11:43 AM, David Fiander <david at fiander.info> wrote:
> Time management is tricky. There are probably ways of doing it, but it
> will be complicated.
>
> If you are thinking about migrating your public internet PCs away from
> Windows to Linux, then printing will require some development, but not
> as much as time management.
>
> Because the Linux printer subsystem is built from the ground up to
> support networked printer servers, the PCs can all be configured to
> submit their printer jobs to a central server very easily. It would
> only take a little bit of programming to enable associating print jobs
> with individual library users. The internet terminals would probably
> not need to know anything about ILS accounts or anything like that. If
> the system was built properly, it would probably even be possible to
> enable users to print to the public printers from their own laptops on
> the wireless network.
>
> The challenging part would be charging. The printer release station
> would require some custom software to either handle a printer debit
> card system (which is common in academic settings) or adding a charge
> to the patrons record in the ILS, and then releasing the job to the
> printer.
>