My experience within libraries as regards to public computer access is this:
People will go as far as possible. I worked in a library for 3 years which had a bunch of PC's up running W2k. For the first 2 years we didn't have a netcafe environment set up. Needless to say this was a disaster. There was even one system which was dedicated to browsing information on the city website, but since access wasn't strictly limited to the city website people would frequent hotmail.com and similar sites.
My advice would be this:
Keep 60-80% of the systems exclusively for internet access, this could include setting up encylopedias or other reference material but no text handeling. Here a thin client should do ( Im not going to suggest any particular setup others have done that quite nicely )
Then consider if you need to allow people to use word - excell or similar. Here you could use PC's / Macs with a netcafe enviroment set up.
Bottom line of my advice is this:
People go as far as your settings let them. This ESPECIALLY goes for computers ment for kids. I think all security systems should be tested in a classroom of 8th graders...
my 5 cents
Slashdot Mirror
My experience within libraries as regards to public computer access is this:
People will go as far as possible. I worked in a library for 3 years which had a bunch of PC's up running W2k. For the first 2 years we didn't have a netcafe environment set up. Needless to say this was a disaster. There was even one system which was dedicated to browsing information on the city website, but since access wasn't strictly limited to the city website people would frequent hotmail.com and similar sites.
My advice would be this:
Keep 60-80% of the systems exclusively for internet access, this could include setting up encylopedias or other reference material but no text handeling. Here a thin client should do ( Im not going to suggest any particular setup others have done that quite nicely )
Then consider if you need to allow people to use word - excell or similar. Here you could use PC's / Macs with a netcafe enviroment set up.
Bottom line of my advice is this:
People go as far as your settings let them. This ESPECIALLY goes for computers ment for kids. I think all security systems should be tested in a classroom of 8th graders...
my 5 cents