1. Going Beyond the Pale: the Advantages and
Challenges of using iMac Computers for
Public Access Computing in the Public Library
Defying Gravity - Libraries without Limits
California Library Association Conference - San Jose, CA
November 3rd, 2012
Henry Bankhead - Los Gatos Library
Carol Corrales - Los Gatos Library
2. Beyond the Pale?
• …from the Latin word palus,
meaning stake, specifically a
stake used to support a fence
• Beyond the Pale: Describing
behavior that is considered to
be outside the bounds of
morality, good behavior or
judgment in civilized
company
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pale
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Ireland_1450.png
3. About Us
• One shop deal =one location=simple
• Just less than 30,000 population served
– 120,000+ items
– Annual Circ for 11/12 = 542,477
– Door Count = 241,888
• RFID since 2008
• New Library 2/11/12
• We like to try new things
4. Why Mac?
• New Library – New Computers
• Envisionware time management possibility
• Different
• Big Screen
• Simplicity
• Form factor
• The Woz
6. Mac - PC Dichotomy
• Expensive • Cheap
• Hold Value • Lose Value
• Exclusive • Universal
• Different • Common
• User Friendly • Not user Friendly
• Special • Generic
• Dependable • Brittle
• Secure • Less Secure
7. Public Computing Timeline
5/28/2005 5/23/2006 5/18/2007 5/12/2008 5/7/2009 5/2/2010 4/27/2011 4/21/2012 4/16/2013
Veicon
Transition (old library)
New iMac (old library)
VMWare (old library)
imacs (new library)
8. Veicon Thin Client
• Highly administered
– Constantly having to contact support
– Additional wires and cords for usb and floppy
input
• Limited features
– Image Viewer
– Microsoft Paint – very limited
– No print Management at the time
• High cost
– Annual Maintenance fee
• Prone to problems
– users content on their flash drive disappeared
after connecting to the station.
– Terminal Naming Error.
– “No License Found…Demo mode for 5 minutes”
– Tech Support number disconnected, no warning
– Slowness
9. Transitional State
• Old dell PCs
• Steady State
– Allowed usage for 1 hour
– Patron was able to get back on after the hour
• Easy to please
• No print management (honor system)
10. Momentum
• Not replacing computers = increased savings
toward next generation
– Held off for 6 years
– Every year we had set aside funding towards new
computers
• New Library Expansion of Public Access
Computers
– From 12 to 44
– From bad to ok to excellent
11. LGHS as a model
• All student computers are iMac dual boot
• Students very used to Mac
• No time management concerns at LGHS
12. Santa Clara Univ. as a model
• Casper from Jamf
• Imaging
• Santa Clara Dual
Boot Mac PC
• No need for time
management at
SCU
13. Consulting!
• Xuesong Wang - Pacific Design Engineering
– helps us monitor our network in conjunction with the
Town.
– Spent about 2 months talking about what we were
looking for and how we wanted to deploy
– In depth knowledge of networking
• Created our own DNS Server
• Set up our network
• Troubleshooting
– Netboot function for Casper
– Print release
14. Imaging
• Design image
– Applications we wanted to use.
– Basic 1st Image
• Internet
• Open Office
– 2nd Image
• Chess, iPhoto, iMovie, Microsoft Office
• What Patrons wanted
• Image variations
– Tech Room – Snow Leopard
– Grand Reading Room - Lion
• Push image(s) to clients
– 44 computers takes bandwidth
– Pushed image overnight
• Make adjustments
– Renaming each computer
– Test printing
• Deep Freeze
15. Dual boot & PC Reservation
• Choice mostly Windows -
familiarity
• Dual Booting takes time
– Boot-picker
– OS selection
– Time management on top
– Delay=frustration
• Boots up in the OS
• PC Reservation then had to
boot
• Finally getting into the System
• Is it broken?
• Reservation Doubling
16. Going to VMWare Fusion
• Reduce wait time
• Elected to have all machines boot as MAC
• Tried Parallels and VMWare Fusion
• Chose VMWare Fusion
– Consultant was more familiar with VMWare Fusion
– Cost difference was very minimal
• All computers logged in at all times
• Less confusion
– Terminals already booted into the Mac OS
– PC Reservation log in page is the first thing Patrons see.
– Internet page automatically opens up to our web page as the home
page.
– Windows on the desktop if Patrons wish to use Windows
17. Access & Usability
• Unlimited guest passes
• No requirement for library card
• THAWSPACE
– If Patrons are running out of time then can save to
“Thawspace”. If computers log out, documents in
Thawspace are not erased for 24 hrs
• Allow users to download anything
• Deepfreeze - All info erased between sessions
18. Productivity Software
• Microsoft
– Word
– Excel
– PowerPoint
• Mac and PC versions required
• Contemplated
– Handbrake
– Dreamweaver
• Preview vs. Adobe Reader
19. Old Library Printing
• Old Library – before iMacs
– No mediation
• Honor system 10 free pages
• Old Library – new iMacs
– Librarian release with admin console
• Honor system 10 free pages
• Printer only
• Staff burden
• Choke point
20. Caught a Bank Robber
• Due to a glitch in the librarian print release
21. New Library Printing
• New Library
– Patron release
– No free printing!
– Multifunction
machine
22. Non use of Queuing
• Lots of computers
• No real need for queuing
• First come-first served works well
• Less confusion
• Almost always have machines available
• Extra time added at will from ref desk
23. Mac Mini + Kiosk Software
• eCrisper for web
– Only web apps
– No client applications
• Libki
– Open Source
– http://libki.org/
– Not tested on mac
24. Problems
• Idle Time pop up
• Log out by traditional vs. PC reservation way
• DVD region issues
• Mac familiarity issues
• Snow Leopard vs. Lion
26. Log Out
• Users do not log out
correctly
• Logout screen is small
and somewhat hidden
in a dropdown
• Users are able to and
do use traditional Mac
logout
• Puts machine in an
intermediate unusable
state with wrong login
boxes that do not work
27. Region Issues & DVDs
• We allow DVD watching
• DVDs that are not region 1 will not play
• Drive region must be reset via Parental
Controls
• Password protected
• Staff burden
28. Mac Familiarity
• Insert and Eject CD
• Insert and open flash drive
• Accessing directory structure
• Special controls/functions
– Apple key instead of control key
• Apple + c = copy etc.
– Window view button
– Apple + Shift + 4 for selectable screen capture
30. Conclusions
• Mac is a crowd pleaser
• Less of a library model
• Making less work sometimes causes more
work
• Most patrons not familiar w/ mac
• Many patrons use browser only so they do not
notice the difference
• Users under a certain age love Mac
31. Contact Info and Survey
• hbankhead@losgatosca.gov
• ccorrales@losgatosca.gov
• Boopsie Survey
http://www.clanet.boopsie.com/
Notes de l'éditeur
Hello and thanks for coming to our session. I am Henry Bankhead and this is Carol Corrales. We are from the Los Gatos library and we are going to be talking today about our experience using iMac computers for public computing in the Los Gatos library.
The first question is why Mac. We knew we were moving to a new library so we wanted to have new exciting computers. We had also discovered that envision ware's PC reservation worked with mac. We wanted to be different. We liked the big screens and the simplicity of an all in one. We also happen to be the same town where The Woz lives, so we thought there was some additional logic in that.
We also liked that Macs come with integrated applications that we could offer our patrons including iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Photo Booth and iDVD. We allow people to use all these programs, to watch movies and to use the integrated screen cams as well.
That said we would like to explore what we call the Mac/PC dichotomy just a bit. There has traditionally been a split among users between Mac and PC. Macs are seen as Expensive though they hold their value, they are less common and thus exclusive, they are different, can be seen as user friendly, mac users feel special, because they have invested in dependable machines that a felt to be more secure as most computer viruses target PCs. PC on the other hand are seen as cheaper, do not retain value, are universal, more common, not always user friendly, somewhat generic and taken for granted, tend to break (brittle) and are perceived as less secure, i.e. more prone to viruses as most viruses, as I pointed out, are targeted at the Windows operating system. (fly in all points) (jobs pic)
We have come a long way from when we were on Veicon’s thin clients. Our thin client system had very limited features and gave us very little control over our own system. It was very inflexible and prone to problems.Constantly having to call support to do simple things such as upgrading browsers, install certain applications such as Adobe Flash. There were no easy to way to plug in a usb drives and at the time floppy disks were still being used, therefore a need for additional cables.Unable to read PDFs or view images in general. Their solution was Microsoft Paint which worked in some cases but still very limited.At the time Veicon did not have a Print Management solution.High Maintenance fee for what we had. Currently we pay 3 times less.Prone to problems: 4 random instances where a user would plug in their usb drive and all their files would disppear. Our Assistant Director decided to test it out and sure enough, all her files vanished. There was no solution and no reason why this would happen. We had to put disclaimers on all the cables warning Patrons, use at their own risk.Every so often, our computers would come up with some Terminal Naming Error. “This terminal has the same name as another terminal.” Which if we restarted the computer it would clear itself up.Also, on occasion our system would appear in Demo mode, because no license was found, which is strange since we paid our annual maintenance and license fee. In general, the system was slow.
When the Veicon contract ran out there was no way we were going to renew. So we limped along for about a week w/o a contact and then decided to create our own solution until our new Macs arrives. We used our old dell PCs ( we had just gotten new ones) with no time management. We used steady state to define sessions and the system worked pretty well.We decided at this time, when our contract ended we would not renew. So we limped along for about a week without a contract. About the same time, we had decided to move forward with dual booting iMacs.However we needed to find a temporary solution until our iMacs arrived and were operational for public access.We realized that we still had our old staff computers. So why not use them. They had more functionality than the thin clients we were using and were faster.It did require us to do a little reconfiguring. We used Steady State to help maintain our computer configuration as well as our time management.Patron’s were given an hour use however it was based on an honor system. Once their time was up, they could get right back on.Again we did not have print management, still based on an honor system.
Every Year we set aside funds for computer replacements.Since we held off for 6 years, we had accumulated a sizeable amount towards our next generation of public computers, in this iMacs.We were building up momentum towards our move to the new library.We deployed the 12 new computers in the old library as a prequel to our new library.Then we moved our new iMacs to the new library and added additional iMacs and mac minis.We went from having 12 to 44 iMacs for public access.We went from our thin clients to a temporary solution in our old staff computers to the new iMacs…thus from bad to ok to excellent.Now let me hand this back over to Henry to discuss more on why iMacs.
Our decision to use IMacs was based in part on our experience of the computing model at the Los Gatos High School, located just down the street from us. They use an older version of iMac (pic) and are dual booting into Windows and Mac OS. They do not require time management so their system is easier to administer. They are also maintaining each workstation individually. Since all of our high school students where used to using macs at school we thought that providing mac in the library created a sense of continuity and familiarity from school to library. Since many students come to the library directly after school we thought it made great sense; the physical environments are contiguous, why not make the computing environments contiguous also.
We also discovered that Santa Clara university was using dual booting iMacs. We went there on a field trip to investigate and learned of their use of the Casper application from Jamf. This allowed them to push our computer images from the server. They did not have to maintain each machine individually, Thus they could create a set of applications on an image that would be consistently deployed to a set of workstations. Their setup was also a little less complex than ours because they are not using an overall time management system, though students do need to log in with ID they are not a strictly limited as are our public library users.
Los Gatos library does not really have an IT department, it is just Carol and Henry. Thus the need for consultants. We used a local consulting group to help us with the set up of the network and the imaging of all the workstations using Casper. We ran in to a slew of problems and luckily Xuesong was able to solve them for us.
There are a number of steps in the imaging process. First we designed an image with variations for the children’s room and adult area. Then we pushed the image from the server to the client machines. We had to make some adjustments and then to repeat the process when we got new computers when we moved into the new library.First we designed an image with the basics Applications we wanted to use…such as the web browsers and Open Office. (Being an Open source library, we thought why not use open source applications.)We also knew that PDF and jpeg viewing capabilities was very essential.Once we created the image, we uploaded the image to the our server and pushed them out to the client machines.After some time, We realized that our users wanted more access to the standard Apple applications such as iPhoto, iMovie, Garage Band, and Chess. We also found that they did not like Open office…so we purchased Microsoft Office giving them access to Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.We wanted to give our users what they wanted…so we redid the computer image with some adjustments. When we purchased our next round of iMacs, we ended up with imacs running the Lion OS and not Snow Leopard, which is what our original 12 iMacs were running. Therefore, we had to create a new image for our Lion computers.So we went from 12 to 44 iMacs, and pushing the image was going to take a considerable amount of our bandwidth. Therefore, we pushed the image overnight.After images were pushed, we did have to do a little of adjustments, such as renaming each of the computers so the system would see them as individual computers.We also had to test to make sure printing worked.In all of this, we are using Deep Freeze to help us protect the computers and preserve their configurations. Once a user logs out of the system, the computer goes back to its original state.
In our first round of images, our computers were set up with boot camp which allowed us to install the windows OS on the iMacs. As Henry stated earlier, we used boot picker to allow our users to decide which OS they wanted to use. We found that given the choice, most of our users chose Windows. It was what they were familiar with.Once the OS was selected, the system then booted up. However this boot process took some time…This delay caused frustration to our users.Up to a few minutes. The computer had to boot into the OS and then our PC reservation had to boot finally getting into the system at which point a user could log into the computer with their library card.Some of our users thought the system was broken due to the required time it took the system to get up and finally running.Just to mention that we are currently using PC Reservation from Envisionware. (Henry already mentioned?)Because we were doing this in dual boot mode, PC Reservation required us to create 2 computer names for each computer. One for the Mac side and one for the PC side. Thus doubling the number the computers we had appearing in the system. Also to mention, when the computers were at the boot picker stage, they computers were not running, they were not seen by the network. This meant that the reservation system did not see them as well. This was all very confusing. The computers needed to be already logged in for a reservation to be made.When we initially set up the iMacs with PC Reservation from Envisionware, we asked if they knew of any other Library system doing this. And the answer was no.
To solve the problem of the Long wait time we decided to make all the Machines logged on as Mac with an option to use widows with VMFusion. This greatly reduced the wait time and made a certain sense a they are macs. Windows proponents were a little disappointed, however our assessment was that the mass of users were mainly doing browser based tasks and thus were comfortable and able to work in any browser, even one running on a Mac. In addition a certain percentage of users are not really aware that the machine is a mac. This is greatly reduced some confusion on the reservation side as all computers were appearing only once.So how do we reduce the wait time?We thought we could run the Mac OS parallel with Windows.We had decided to have all the machines boot as Mac and then run Windows as a virtual machine using VMWare FusionWe did test Parallels and VMWare Fusion -- which allowed us to deploy Windows in a virtual machine environment on the iMacs.We chose VMWare Fusion over Parallels because Xuesong was more familiar with VMWare Fusion and the cost difference between the two was very minimal.By doing this, there was less confusion.The computers were already booted into the Mac OS and the PC Reservation log in page was the first thing the users see.Because the majority of our users were there to gain internet access, our system automatically opens up to our web page as the home page and were ready to go when the users logged in. We found that the users were comfortable to work in any browser even one running on Mac. If our users wanted to use Windows, we had windows icon on the desktop.
We should also mention that we pride ourselves on providing a high level of access and usability. Our wireless is an open network. We do not require a library card for users to log in to our public terminals; we provide guest passes to all visitors. We also provide a thawspace on each machine that allows users to store data for up to 24 hours. The “Thawspace” we created is a space on the computer system that is not affected by our Deep Freeze. So if a User is running out of time and they do not have a usb drive to save their work or they do not have time to email it to themselves, they can save their work in this space. When the computer logs out, their work is safe in this space for up to 24 hours. It is not erased by Deep Freeze. Also for those who are running on Windows, also have access to this “Thawspace”. The computer shares this folder on both OSs. A Patron can log back in with a guest pass, and gather their work. We other thing to mention is that we do allow users to download anything they wish to .And since we are using deep freeze, the computers are reset to the original configuration after each user logs out. All info is erased between sessions.
We provide a standard productivity suite of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel. We provide this on the Mac side and the Windows side. Originally we thought we would need to pay the licensing fee twice but this turned out to be not the case? (true?).In addition to providing easy accessibility to our system, we do provide an array of software for our users.We do provide access to the available applications that come standard with iMacs such as iMovie, iPhoto, and even Garage Band.Also as stated earlier, our users were not fond of Open Office, so we decided to purchase Microsoft Office giving them access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.We were required to have the Mac version as well as the PC version.Some other applications that we contemplated were “Handbrake” which we saw at Santa Clara University.Handbrake is a open source software that is used as a general-purpose video transcoder to make ripping a film from a DVD to a data storage device easier. As a public library, we thought it was probably not a good idea to allow our patrons to do this.Another one we had discussions and were asked for by our users was DreamWeaver. Unfortunately, due to the cost, we had decided that it was not feasible for us to have.Also iMacs come with an application called “preview”, that allows the viewing of PDF files and images. We also installed Adobe Reader as well. With the reader, patrons are able to do form filling as well as printing form Adobe Reader was much easier than printing with Preview.With that, let me hand this over to Henry to discuss printing at our Library.
We also experienced evolution in our print release and cost recovery from the old library system to the new computers in the old library to the new system in the new library.Before we got the macs in the old library we had not print management and an honor system. This did not work well. However when we first installed the macs with PC reservation we had librarians releasing print jobs and collecting only after the first ten copies. This was a staff burden and a bottleneck. In the new library we went to a totally patron release system with no free copies and the print release being accomplished from a computer station by the multifunction. This has been very effect in reducing frivolous printing. We are still experiencing a education burden however in having to explain how the system works to new users but they seem to pick it up rather quickly. We are unable to offer color printing a s an option however patron can do color copying.
On a brief note, one side effect of the old library hybrid librarian release system is that we were able to catch a bomb threat bank robber because of a flaw in the print release system.
We are so excited about our print management that we wanted to list the benefits and some issues. Our main benefit is the system is user driven which frees us up. The there is the cost recovery which is not negligible. We are unable to offer duplexing or color as options which is somewhat regrettable. We have noticed a significant reduction in waste and prank jobs. Also our choice of a multifunction gives us the ability to offer copying, scan to file ( n lieu of faxing) and printing directly from a file in addition to the print release from public computer function. The down side of the multifunction is that it is difficult for separate patrons to engage in all these activities at once. They must take turns
We have not found the need to use the reservation function in PC reservation though it is there. We have kind of hidden it on the print release station and it is on the staff admin screen.We have enough computers that they are almost always available. The fist come first serve is thus simpler and less complex. We are almost always able to add extra time to user’s initial sessions. These sessions are 2 hours if computers are available and 1 hour if they are all in use.
We have also had to create a moderating computing environment on our Catalog OPACs so users do not close the browser. We do this using a mac kiosk application called eCrisper. This allows us to manage the look and feel of the desktop and to add buttons and messaging. It only works on browser based services and cannot deploy other installed applications. We are exploring an open source alternative called Libki as well. It however has not been tested on Mac.
As this is all a big learning experience we are now going to go through some of the more pernicious problems we have encountered: They are the idle time pop-up, log-out options, snow leopard vs. lion issues, Parental Controls and some mac familiarity issues.
This pop-up has been appearing regularly on users screens. It goes away if you click ok. But it comes back. This requires a staff member to intervene by choosing “Always Allow” and overriding it.By overriding it, it only overrides for that session.We have yet to figure out where “idle_time” is coming from. On some computers it appears and others it doesn’t.
Users do not always log out using the envision ware “end session” dropdown. It is not obvious so users familiar with mac go to the apple menu and log out. The problem with this is that it senders the computer as logged out and it cannot be used unless someone clicks restart or types in guest. We have been fixing these machines as they get this way. However Envision ware is going to be offering a permanently visible log out option in their new version (screen shot) . However, we really need to have the apple menu logout disabled in some way.Another issue we have is how Patrons log out of their session.In the PC Reservation, the log out is where they must use the “End session” in the dropdown box.However it is not very noticeable and not very obvious where it is located.Users use the traditional method of logging out of the system. In the case of iMacs it is going to the apple and choosing “Log Out Guest User”By logging out with this method, the computers are put into the intermediate state with the login and password box vs. the library card login page of PC Reservation.A staff member is needed to log into the system as a guest user and getting the computer back to the PC Reservation screen.
In the Library, we do allow our Patrons to watch movies.However, in doing so, if the DVDs are not “region 1” will not play.The Drive regions must be reset via parental controls which requires a Staff member to intervene and override the system.In is somewhat of a staff burden but again we do allow our Patrons to watch movies.With that let me hand it back over to Henry to discuss some Mac Familiarity
People who have never used the iMac need to be shown where the cd/DVD drive is and how to eject a CD/DVD. They also need a little direct on plugging in a usb drive and accessing it from the desktop or directory structure. Non mac users also need a little instruction on the way the mac directories are arranged to find files and downloads. There is no “my documents” there is no C drive.
When we originally went with iMacs, our original 12 machines were equipped with Snow Leopard. PC Reservation and our Print Management system worked with Snow Leopard.When we ordered our next round of iMacs for the new library, we assumed they too would be equipped with Snow Leopard.However, that was not the case.They were equipped with Apple’s lateset OS – Lion.We came to realize that Envisionware were in the stages of creating and testing their software against Lion. Unfortunately, their printing did not work with Lion yet. So for the first few months our grand opening, we do not have printing access for our users. Which was very frustrating to us as well as our users.Eventually, with constant talks with our Envisionware Support team, we were able to get printing up and running with our Lion computers.No printng from tech lab for a whileLet me hand this back over to Henry to sum up our experience with our iMacs.
In conclusion we are glad that we went with Mac. We have learned a lot. Mac systems have less of a library market than Windows and thus we have less options and more issues. We still love working with Macs. Moist patrons are happy and even impressed to be able to use iMacs. We reiterate that though some patrons may not be familiar with mac, from a user needs and user experience perspective they are fine with the browser experience on the mac. Though the close, minimize and maximize buttons are in a different order than on windows, the machine works about the same. Also younger people love the mac. They are the future. We are providing computers for them as much as for anybody.
