I wish other people would reply, to give a broader experience base.
I'm 41. I have met about 130 people that I have chatted with online. Out of those, I can honestly say I had only 1 bad experience. I had relationships with only a few. The rest were just one-time meets for coffee, lunch, dinner or drinks. I really do think MOST of the people online are good, honest, hardworking people. When you have chatted online for as long as I have, (since about 1997) you really do get a feel for the creepy ones. Sometimes it's just their screen name that gives you bad vibes. I stay away from chatting with those that have anything sexual in their screen names. I like to think that my success rate in meeting good people from online in person comes from common sense judgments. I would have to say as an aside...ALWAYS meet in a public place! ALWAYS have access to a way out, and ALWAYS make sure someone knows where you are meeting at and for how long.
I filled up on Sunday at $2.49. Gas went up on Monday to $2.59. On Wednesday it went up twice! Wednesday morning it was $2.69 and around 11 PM it went to $2.99. This along with heat (natural gas went up 35-40% in the last 1-2 years) over the winter, and I won't be able to afford to do anything other than sit at home. I've already claimed bankruptcy, have no car payment (drive a junker) and no credit card bills. How is the average American worker going to survive?? By stealing gas or food? by keeping their house at 60 degrees over the winter? what about those on fixed incomes like social security? This was the first year in the last 3 years we even got raises (work in a public library in PA...state funding cuts in the last 3 years thanks to our Gov Rendell) and our raise was a whopping 3%. There is no way to even out this grossly unbalanced income to expense ratio. I would love to hear from anyone with real suggestions on how to survive.
Have you ever had to file for Erate funds? Do you fully understand what the program does? If you did, you would NOT be saying to kill the program. This program helps keeps schools and libraries connected to the Internet. It gives us discounts on our telephone service and Internet service. It also helps provide internal connections for buildings that do not have the wiring in place for Internet. I file all my library's Erate paperwork. I understand the process. I can not stop others from abusing the system, but I can tell you that those that abuse it are NOT in the majority. It must be awful easy to criticize something you have no clue about. Read through the reference area on tbe Universal Service's website. http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/
Only one problem I can see with your theory....
Plug unscrews itself, falls into the bucket with the oil right behind: And you don't have to scald yourself or let dirty oil drip all over your hand.
How do you intend to get the plug back out of that pan of hot, dirty oil to put it back in the oil pan?
And YES, I can do my own oil changes/car maintenance repairs even being a woman!
I understand the issues over PSP's. How about the hassles of getting those rebates??!! I've gotten two computers in teh last year...one Compaq and one HP. Both offered manufacturer rebates and one offered a store rebate (Circuit City). Both of the manufacturer rebates took me months to receive. I know they offer those rebates in the hopes that most people won't bother persuing them. Well I'm one that does. I'm not turning down the $100 or so rebate. It takes at least 5 or 6 phone calls to the rebate center after you send it in to get them to process it. One of the companies told me I never sent them a copy of the sales receipt. I kept copies of everything I sent them. So obviously, I mailed them a second set of copies (receipt and rebate forms). After having them write me again that they never received the information, I asked for their fax number. I faxed the copies to them so there was no question that they were recieved. Rebates should not be such a hassle to get! Now I don't even bother figuring on a rebate if I want to purchase something.
We are a public library. Our services are FREE
so that the poor and underprivileged can have access. Not all 55,000 patrons are active at least once a year(for some it might be 5 years before they visit the library again). Are you willing to pay a membership and an admission fee for any place else you want to go that is also suppsed to be free? Charging for each piece of material loaned would be defeating the purpose of having a free library wouldn't it? Our service population is about 62,000. If we charge for all these services as you suggest, we lose all funding. There are state guidelines that have to be followed in order to receive this funding. Would it be fair to the people of the community to have to close this library? NO.
We have approximately 55,000 patrons registered. We get another 200-300 new patrons every month. According to you...if we charge the patrons for their cards, we would have to charge the $200 to make up the difference in the funding we would lose for not filtering. I invite you to come look at our budget. YOU can offer your opinions on where to cut back. We have had almost 250,000 people through the doors and have circulated almost 3,000,000 items in the last year. Our fundraiser last year was for $30,000 to balance the budget. We have enough trouble raising that. You do not pay for our budget deficits as a taxpayer. You might help pay for programs sponsored by the Goverment through taxes but you have not paid for our filters (since this is an unfunded mandate).
Different parts of the country have a different cost of living. We have almost 60 computers here with Internet access. $40 a month is NOT going to cover that. We pay $100/mo for our T1 line access. That is considered cheap! Our E-rate discount is 60%. OK so we don't get any more Federal funding. State funding cut 50% (plus what we won't receive in state funding after not applying filters)...but charging for library cards?? Come one....We'd have to charge $208.34 (500,000 divided by 2400...average new patrons 200/mo X 12 months)for each new card just to hope to get close to the money we need for one year! Are you going to pay over $200 a year for a library card? We would not just lose E-rate discounts...you don't seem to understand that. There is other Federal and State money also grant money tied to those filters now. The E-rate program was designed to put Internet access in Schools and Libraries. If you would like to cover our budget deficit or even pay for our filters, please feel free to send the $$$$!!
Our Internet access costs much more than $40/month. We need these Federal Funds. Our state budget was alread cut by 50% this year. That is 25% of our total library budget. Our county gives us barely enough to do anything with and we can not get a raise from them due to their budget cuts. Why do you think it is ok that the Federal Govt gave us this money to start with...then later gives us strings attached to it?? We did not pressure the Govt to help us get Internet access. Will we take the funding? Of course! Libraries in PA have been distressed for many years. Five years ago an article was written on the sad shape of libraries in PA and steps were taken to improve that. Now with all the budget cuts we are worse off than we were before! Now you either want us to pay big bucks that we dont have to pay for filters or lose our Federal and state funding? Why don't you give me some suggestions on how to replace over $500,000 in funding cuts for one year?
MOST of the teens/adults were looking ???
You need to take that up with your local library board. Our library does not permit this behavior. Our patrons know this. We rarely have a problem with it. This should not be a mandate for ALL libraries.
My guess is that you live in one of the rich communities that can afford to pay for Internet access in their library. What about the poor communities that rely on this money for Internet access??? CIPA was not in effect when E-rate started 6 years ago. It wasn't my6understanding that all funds would have to be paid back...it was my understanding that funding would discontinue if you were not CIPA compliant.
their browsing is correlated to their ID's if they are accessing inappropriate sites at our library. We record the card ID # and the terminal and time each person was there. When we run logs of the Internet sites accessed, we can see when it was accessed, by what terminal, and time and know who accessed it. That is why we have an acceptable use policy for Internet use. This worked very well for us. We don't want to filter the adults.
-provided the filters can be turned off for that one machine. Filters on a server can not be turned off to one machine. ALL computers in the library will be filtered...from the Director's desk to the Reference Librarian, to the secretary. So it's not just the public that loses. Even the staff that would do the research for you is limited in what they can access.
That's all well and good until you need to replace equipment that would be E-rate eligible. The discounts libraries receive on Internet access and internal connections for Internet access are too great to just turn down and pay for themselves. Libraries run on a very tight budget, and with the state budget cuts here in PA at 50% (thanks to our new Governor,)who can afford to pay for their Internet access without discounts, or who can afford to pay for filters??
filters on the server can not just be 'switched off'...filters on individual machines can be switched off...but the licenses for individual machines are prohibitively expensive
I work in a library. We do NOT want to filter our Internet terminals. We have an Internet policy in place that basically says if you look at explicit sites, pornography, chat rooms, or games, your Internet privileges are revoked. This policy has worked very well for us. We have had offenders try this anyway and they have been warned and had their privileges suspended or revoked. We have 8 public terminals that are busy for most of the hours of library operation (65 hrs/wk)and only a few that have been reprimanded for their use of the Internet. We also have 2 Internet terminals in the childrens area that are filtered. The adult computers should not be filtered IMHO. What about our rights to read whatever we want?? Who are we (at the library!) to say what you can and can't read/look for information on? Information is our business. Filters block to much useful information. With a filter on the server, staff won't even be able to turn off the filter to find information you request if the filtering software blocks it.
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I wish other people would reply, to give a broader experience base. I'm 41. I have met about 130 people that I have chatted with online. Out of those, I can honestly say I had only 1 bad experience. I had relationships with only a few. The rest were just one-time meets for coffee, lunch, dinner or drinks. I really do think MOST of the people online are good, honest, hardworking people. When you have chatted online for as long as I have, (since about 1997) you really do get a feel for the creepy ones. Sometimes it's just their screen name that gives you bad vibes. I stay away from chatting with those that have anything sexual in their screen names. I like to think that my success rate in meeting good people from online in person comes from common sense judgments. I would have to say as an aside...ALWAYS meet in a public place! ALWAYS have access to a way out, and ALWAYS make sure someone knows where you are meeting at and for how long.
I filled up on Sunday at $2.49. Gas went up on Monday to $2.59. On Wednesday it went up twice! Wednesday morning it was $2.69 and around 11 PM it went to $2.99. This along with heat (natural gas went up 35-40% in the last 1-2 years) over the winter, and I won't be able to afford to do anything other than sit at home. I've already claimed bankruptcy, have no car payment (drive a junker) and no credit card bills. How is the average American worker going to survive?? By stealing gas or food? by keeping their house at 60 degrees over the winter? what about those on fixed incomes like social security? This was the first year in the last 3 years we even got raises (work in a public library in PA...state funding cuts in the last 3 years thanks to our Gov Rendell) and our raise was a whopping 3%. There is no way to even out this grossly unbalanced income to expense ratio. I would love to hear from anyone with real suggestions on how to survive.
Have you ever had to file for Erate funds? Do you fully understand what the program does? If you did, you would NOT be saying to kill the program. This program helps keeps schools and libraries connected to the Internet. It gives us discounts on our telephone service and Internet service. It also helps provide internal connections for buildings that do not have the wiring in place for Internet. I file all my library's Erate paperwork. I understand the process. I can not stop others from abusing the system, but I can tell you that those that abuse it are NOT in the majority. It must be awful easy to criticize something you have no clue about. Read through the reference area on tbe Universal Service's website. http://www.sl.universalservice.org/reference/
Only one problem I can see with your theory.... Plug unscrews itself, falls into the bucket with the oil right behind: And you don't have to scald yourself or let dirty oil drip all over your hand. How do you intend to get the plug back out of that pan of hot, dirty oil to put it back in the oil pan? And YES, I can do my own oil changes/car maintenance repairs even being a woman!
Now THAT was funny!
I understand the issues over PSP's. How about the hassles of getting those rebates??!! I've gotten two computers in teh last year...one Compaq and one HP. Both offered manufacturer rebates and one offered a store rebate (Circuit City). Both of the manufacturer rebates took me months to receive. I know they offer those rebates in the hopes that most people won't bother persuing them. Well I'm one that does. I'm not turning down the $100 or so rebate. It takes at least 5 or 6 phone calls to the rebate center after you send it in to get them to process it. One of the companies told me I never sent them a copy of the sales receipt. I kept copies of everything I sent them. So obviously, I mailed them a second set of copies (receipt and rebate forms). After having them write me again that they never received the information, I asked for their fax number. I faxed the copies to them so there was no question that they were recieved. Rebates should not be such a hassle to get! Now I don't even bother figuring on a rebate if I want to purchase something.
We are a public library. Our services are FREE so that the poor and underprivileged can have access. Not all 55,000 patrons are active at least once a year(for some it might be 5 years before they visit the library again). Are you willing to pay a membership and an admission fee for any place else you want to go that is also suppsed to be free? Charging for each piece of material loaned would be defeating the purpose of having a free library wouldn't it? Our service population is about 62,000. If we charge for all these services as you suggest, we lose all funding. There are state guidelines that have to be followed in order to receive this funding. Would it be fair to the people of the community to have to close this library? NO.
We have approximately 55,000 patrons registered. We get another 200-300 new patrons every month. According to you...if we charge the patrons for their cards, we would have to charge the $200 to make up the difference in the funding we would lose for not filtering. I invite you to come look at our budget. YOU can offer your opinions on where to cut back. We have had almost 250,000 people through the doors and have circulated almost 3,000,000 items in the last year. Our fundraiser last year was for $30,000 to balance the budget. We have enough trouble raising that. You do not pay for our budget deficits as a taxpayer. You might help pay for programs sponsored by the Goverment through taxes but you have not paid for our filters (since this is an unfunded mandate).
Different parts of the country have a different cost of living. We have almost 60 computers here with Internet access. $40 a month is NOT going to cover that. We pay $100/mo for our T1 line access. That is considered cheap! Our E-rate discount is 60%. OK so we don't get any more Federal funding. State funding cut 50% (plus what we won't receive in state funding after not applying filters)...but charging for library cards?? Come one....We'd have to charge $208.34 (500,000 divided by 2400...average new patrons 200/mo X 12 months)for each new card just to hope to get close to the money we need for one year! Are you going to pay over $200 a year for a library card? We would not just lose E-rate discounts...you don't seem to understand that. There is other Federal and State money also grant money tied to those filters now. The E-rate program was designed to put Internet access in Schools and Libraries. If you would like to cover our budget deficit or even pay for our filters, please feel free to send the $$$$!!
Our Internet access costs much more than $40/month. We need these Federal Funds. Our state budget was alread cut by 50% this year. That is 25% of our total library budget. Our county gives us barely enough to do anything with and we can not get a raise from them due to their budget cuts. Why do you think it is ok that the Federal Govt gave us this money to start with...then later gives us strings attached to it?? We did not pressure the Govt to help us get Internet access. Will we take the funding? Of course! Libraries in PA have been distressed for many years. Five years ago an article was written on the sad shape of libraries in PA and steps were taken to improve that. Now with all the budget cuts we are worse off than we were before! Now you either want us to pay big bucks that we dont have to pay for filters or lose our Federal and state funding? Why don't you give me some suggestions on how to replace over $500,000 in funding cuts for one year?
according to the law...there will be NO unfiltered computers in libraries...not even staff computers
MOST of the teens/adults were looking ??? You need to take that up with your local library board. Our library does not permit this behavior. Our patrons know this. We rarely have a problem with it. This should not be a mandate for ALL libraries.
My guess is that you live in one of the rich communities that can afford to pay for Internet access in their library. What about the poor communities that rely on this money for Internet access??? CIPA was not in effect when E-rate started 6 years ago. It wasn't my6understanding that all funds would have to be paid back...it was my understanding that funding would discontinue if you were not CIPA compliant.
their browsing is correlated to their ID's if they are accessing inappropriate sites at our library. We record the card ID # and the terminal and time each person was there. When we run logs of the Internet sites accessed, we can see when it was accessed, by what terminal, and time and know who accessed it. That is why we have an acceptable use policy for Internet use. This worked very well for us. We don't want to filter the adults.
-provided the filters can be turned off for that one machine. Filters on a server can not be turned off to one machine. ALL computers in the library will be filtered...from the Director's desk to the Reference Librarian, to the secretary. So it's not just the public that loses. Even the staff that would do the research for you is limited in what they can access.
That's all well and good until you need to replace equipment that would be E-rate eligible. The discounts libraries receive on Internet access and internal connections for Internet access are too great to just turn down and pay for themselves. Libraries run on a very tight budget, and with the state budget cuts here in PA at 50% (thanks to our new Governor,)who can afford to pay for their Internet access without discounts, or who can afford to pay for filters??
filters on the server can not just be 'switched off'...filters on individual machines can be switched off...but the licenses for individual machines are prohibitively expensive
I work in a library. We do NOT want to filter our Internet terminals. We have an Internet policy in place that basically says if you look at explicit sites, pornography, chat rooms, or games, your Internet privileges are revoked. This policy has worked very well for us. We have had offenders try this anyway and they have been warned and had their privileges suspended or revoked. We have 8 public terminals that are busy for most of the hours of library operation (65 hrs/wk)and only a few that have been reprimanded for their use of the Internet. We also have 2 Internet terminals in the childrens area that are filtered. The adult computers should not be filtered IMHO. What about our rights to read whatever we want?? Who are we (at the library!) to say what you can and can't read/look for information on? Information is our business. Filters block to much useful information. With a filter on the server, staff won't even be able to turn off the filter to find information you request if the filtering software blocks it.