SemiConscious Dot Org

Last night, I happened to stumble across a post on librarian.net that touched upon a lot of the issues I’ve been wrestling with recently. Jessamyn details the many ordeals associated with donated computer equipment in libraries:

I ran down the options with the librarian. 1) Buy an XP license or three from Tech Soup. 2) Hassle her friend to figure out wtf is up with the software on these computers. 3) Wipe the drives and install Ubuntu.

The school / library where I work has ancient computer equipment. I’m constantly cannibalizing parts from broken computers in order to keep others functioning. We’re running six different versions of Windows (2000, XP, XP Pro, NT Server, 2000 Server, and 2003 Server) and three different versions of Office (2000, 2002, and 2003.) Everyone on staff has the core Office programs, but many people are missing stuff like Access and Publisher.

Moreover, different versions of these programs (especially Publisher) don’t play nice with each other, so a document created on one computer can’t be opened on certain others. One obvious solution would be to purchase 50 or so discounted copies of Office 2007 from TechSoup to get everyone on the same page, but even that meager cash outlay (roughly $1,000) is beyond our means. So I’ve begun experimenting with Ubuntu on staff computers; as a dual boot for now, but possibly as an eventual replacement for Windows.

I do a bit of brief troubleshooting and determine that both monitors work but only one CPU seems to work to run the monitor. I look in the back of the computer and notice the vent fan is pointed sideways. I have no idea what to make of this. I do know that if we want to get rid of this computer in any sort of approved way it will cost us money.

This is one I’ve struggled with for years: since every bit of equipment (and, indeed, our entire budget) comes from donations, how do I respectfully tell someone that the “gift” they’re giving us is virtually useless? Our policy is never to turn down a donation, out of fear that it will create bad word-of-mouth publicity. But when someone shows up at our front door hauling a Win98 machine with less hard drive space than the $30 USB keychain drive in my pocket, a 13 inch monitor that weighs four tons, and a dot matrix printer, the only thing they’re doing is costing us money, since we’re going to have to pay someone to dispose of it.

When that type of computer is left on our doorstep overnight, I always suspect the person knew it was a piece of crap, and just wanted someone else to pay to get rid of it.