LIBRARIES UPGRADING COMPUTERS: AT THE LIBRARY

The St. Lucie County Library System has begun upgrading by replacing its public Internet computers. Most of the PCs were installed in 1999 and 2000 as a gift from an anonymous donor in Martin County. The remainder were purchased through a state library grant under the Florinet Enhanced Connectivity program.

Technology continues to advance and computers that were once state-of-the-art become obsolete in just a few years. Keeping up-to-date in a cost-effective manner when large numbers of PCs are involved is a weighty responsibility for public institutions.

The library system is fortunate to be part of St. Lucie County Information Technology's PC Replenishment Program instituted in the fall of 2001 under the innovative leadership of Director Dennis Wetzel with the approval and authorization of the St. Lucie County Board of County Commissioners.

During a three-year period, all of the county's old PCs will be replaced by new ones manufactured to county specifications by Howard Computers of Laurel, Miss. Once all PCs have been upgraded, the cycle of replacement will continue to ensure that hardware and software remain as current and uniform as possible.

The new public Internet PCs are Pentium 4 with 20 GB hard drives, 512 MB of memory and Windows XP. In addition to Internet Explorer, all of the computers include the full Microsoft Office Suite with Word, Excel, Publisher, Power Point and more. New security software funded by the Friends of the St. Lucie County Library will allow patrons to download to floppy disks and activate the Windows "Accessibility Wizard" to meet vision, hearing and mobility needs.

As part of the deployment, PC Reservation is planned at all five library system sites. This is an automated system that assigns patrons their half-hour sessions on the Internet PCs and is made possible by a generous donation from Floyd and Evelyn Welch.

The PC replacements began on Feb. 11 at the Zora Neale Hurston Branch Library and will continue through March in the following order: St. Lucie West Library, Morningside Branch, Lakewood Park Branch, Port St. Lucie Branch and Fort Pierce Branch libraries. Advance notice will be given at each site, and public computers will not be available on the day of installation to facilitate the work of the County IT Desktop Team.

Some of the old OPAC computers will be converted to new OPACPlus PCs. These will provide access to the library system catalog through WebCat as well as our EBSCOHost, Gale and OCLC First Search subscription databases.

The St. Lucie County Library System and Information Technology Department are working together to bring the residents of St. Lucie County the best access to technology possible.

Edward K. Werner is assistant library director for the St. Lucie County Library System.

CREDIT: Edward K. Werner correspondent