Surplus Sale

As of today, we are officially announcing the sale of our surplus items. Pictures, descriptions and instructions can be found here:

Surplus Item List

Note about the computers:

All computers up for bid are complete with monitor, keyboard, mouse, and cords, are in working order, and come either preloaded with the original operating system and applications or the open-source equivalent. The older Gateway Pentium II 300 has Windows 98, and the Dell Pentium II 266 has Windows 95.

Due to software licensing, the Gateway E-4400s can not be pre-loaded with Windows. Instead, they come pre-loaded with Xubuntu Linux 6.10 and a slew of applications. Don't let this intimidate you as this isn't merely installing Linux and providing minimum functionality. Each comes pre-loaded and configured for general use. Like their Windows counterparts, they have an office suite, web browser, e-mail client, and games. The desktop has been laid out to mimic a Windows desktop. Familiar freeware applications inlude Adobe Acrobat Reader, Flash Player, and RealPlayer 10.

For more information about Xubuntu, please visit xubuntu.org.

If you don't want to use Xubuntu, you can reinstall Windows (XP Pro with 256MB RAM recommended). Instructions are included that explain some of the software and features, and how to install Windows.

Note about equipment in general:

Where possible, we'll include the original manuals and disks, but given the nature of used equipment, this is not guaranteed.

Content Filtering

Just to reiterate, we do have a content filtering server for our public access computers as required by the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA). The purpose of this filter is to block illegal content from being accessed on a public access computer. Our policy allows the filter to bypassed for research purposes only. The user must be an adult (over 18) and only staff are authorized to bypass the filter.

To ensure this policy is not abused, the server logs are checked on a regular basis. Though we do not store user activity, we do log pages that are blocked and bypassed by the filter. A log entry includes a time stamp, URL, the reason it's blocked (or bypassed), and the IP address of the computer that tried to access the page. Unless we spot abuse, this log is not permanently stored, and does not store any personal information.

Please note that the IP address of each computer in the district is unique. We can identify a computer's physical location by its IP address, but not the patron using the computer.

In a recent policy change, we will change the password that allows a bypass bi-annually. This is to help ensure that our filter's security does not get compromised.

For more information on our content filtering server, please review our wiki's FAQ page.

ISP Contract Renewed

We have entered into a new agreement with Merit Network, our current Internet Service Provider. Effective after July 1, 2007, all eight locations will have full T1 (1.5Mbps) connections to the Internet (up from 256kbps). We have also filed paperwork with the Universal Service Fund (USF) for our discount and will have notification of approval by this Spring. These are important milestones for our District.

This means that we'll have better item circulation performance at our libraries, and be able to provide public wireless access.

Yes, public wireless access to the Internet is going to happen this year after July 1, when our T1 connections are put in. To avoid bandwidth issues, available bandwidth via wireless will be capped at 256kbps. Please refer to our Wiki entry "WifiDog" for more information.