🚀 go-pugleaf

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Previously...
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>I would be interested in hearing from others who are charging for printing
>by using a student's "one card".  We have been looking into this and have
>come across two companies - USA Technologies and Pharos.  Is anyone
>familiar with these companies?  I would be interested to hear of stories of
>success or failure in implementing a printing charge.  It is clear that we
>have to do *something*!  My one stipulation is that we can't have our
>consultants taking dimes over a counter - anything else is fair game.
-------
We're affiliated with the library so it was convenient (in some ways) for us
to use the copy cards, which offered us a pre-existing support system.
Someone else would handle the money for us, etc. Then we had readers from OMI
installed to our printers. This is where things get messy. The reader is
wired to the printer's logic board and is set to send a no paper message
until a card is inserted. Although this virtually guarantees that nothing
comes out of the printer until it's paid for, it causes huge headaches
because of print job buffering. On the whole, if I had it to do over again,
I'd think real hard about options that don't involve a card, or more
importantly an option that doesn't tie printing services to specific boxes.
It causes a lot of grief. With all cost retrieval systems, one of the biggest
hassles is caused by computer and printer based job buffering. One of the
better solutions I've seen are in use at Berkeley and Stanford, where
software on the computer debits an account automatically. Frees the users to
print from any machine, spool to the printer of their choice, and uses money
transactions that are a lot more managable than having to use change. The
university's web sites have detailed information about these services. I
forget the exact URLs, but it's not too hard to find from the main Berkeley
page (http://www.berkeley.edu) and for Stanford start at
http://rescomp.stanford.edu, I think.
_____
Michael Han (han@library.ucsf.edu)                     voice: (415) 502-7542
Interactive Learning Center Consultant                        (415) 476-4309
San Francisco, California 94143-0840                     fax: (415) 476-4653