Re: Text-based OPAC?

["John Rutherford" <aw8721 at wayne dot edu>]

Depending on how much you want to invest into this there are a few options, 
some of which
I used in the past.

If you have citrix servers available you can run a telnet or ssh session on 
the citrix server and make it available either to low-end pc's running the 
dos or windows citrix client. You can also
purchase diskless citrix devices (about $300-500) + a monitor. The catch is 
that the citrix servers and software licenses are not cheap. But if they are 
available for other applications on your network that might be an option.

There is also an open source project (linux terminal server) t hat allows 
you to configure a linux
server to run sessions from diskless clients
http://www.ltsp.org/

I set this up long ago (and I think it has gotten much better) and you can 
take a very old pc, potentially without disks of any kind and put a boot rom 
chip onto the ethernet card. It will then boot from
the linux terminals server and run applications available (such as a 
terminal client). This works well if you have the time to setup the server.

Of course if you can setup terminal servers on your network (and my guess is 
you can get as many as you
like for free) you could use old VT terminals also, and these can probably 
be gotten for free given the number that are probably gathering dust in 
university storage rooms.

John Rutherford
Wayne State.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Brennan" <dbrennan at pts dot edu>
To: <innopac at innopacusers dot org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2005 11:59 AM
Subject: Text-based OPAC?


> Good morning-
>
> In our library, we have several OPACs that are in very remote locations 
> and are unsupervised for long periods. When they were as fully capable as 
> our other OPACs, there were problems with misuse.
> What we have done at this point is to force them to use the text-based 
> catalog. However, this still requires a PC with Windows, and up until now, 
> we've just absorbed these in our lease cycle. It seems a waste to me to 
> make a 2.4GHz PC into a dumb terminal, so in order to cut a few PCs from 
> our next lease cycle, I'm investigating replacing these with either 
> extremely ancient PCs running DOS and a telnet client or a dedicated dumb 
> terminal.
> As for the PC option, I've gotten one to boot and get an IP address, but 
> haven't yet figured out how I'll telnet into III - I'm a bit rusty at 
> messing with all of the configurations, packet drivers and the like. I 
> have no idea if there is a dumb terminal which is capable of DHCP and 
> telnet - we have a few left from our old DRA system, but they run over the 
> proprietary cabling from 10 years ago - no luck there.
> Has anyone had experience with this type of setup?
> Thanks,
>
> David
>
> ============================
> David Brennan, MLS
> Electronic Services Librarian
> Clifford E. Barbour Library
> Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
> 616 N. Highland Ave.
> Pittsburgh, PA 15206
> 412-441-3304 x2256
> 412-362-2329 (FAX)
> dbrennan at pts dot edu
> http://www.barbourlibrary.org
> ============================
> Ignorance must certainly be bliss or there wouldn't be so many people so 
> resolutely pursuing it.
> ============================
>
>
>
>
> --
> This message was distributed through the Innovative Users Group INNOPAC 
> list
> Public replies:  INNOPAC at innopacusers dot org
> Update your subscription options: 
> http://innopacusers.org/mailman/listinfo/innopac