New Technology Delivers Big Cost Savings, Security & Convenience for over five years
Hillsboro Public Libraries save $100,000 annually by using a patented technology from a high-tech company in Beaverton, Oregon.

We have been working with Veicon since 1997.

We now have 44 of their V-Link (Windows) terminals divided between our 2 locations. Most are for general Internet access, about one quarter of them are dedicated to Polaris OPAC and 10 also offer MS Office applications (and have floppy drives).

We do like them very much.

The Veicon system uses Windows terminals that do not have hard drives. Processing goes on the in Veicon server: many terminals are connected to one or more servers to support Internet browser, filtering, printing and MS Office applications.

Little has to be done to the terminals. Upgrade of the Polaris OPAC, for example, goes on only at the server: the terminals do not have to be touched. We are not using Veicon for Polaris staff applications. When the user logs on, they are assigned workspace on the Polaris server. When they log off, traces of their use go away. Saving of anything has to be done on a floppy connected to the terminals. They say flash memory devices can be used--we haven't implemented that yet. They are looking at new terminals that have both floppies and CD burners incorporated. We have not experienced any security, virus, worm, spy-ware or melt-down problems with Veicon. No terminals have ever become obsolete although some switches have failed.

Unlike the PCs we had before, the reference staff does not have to restart them. They have automatic logon and are VERY low maintenance.

Our Information Services people toyed with the idea of assembling their own thin client solution for us but gave up after about a year and a half. They love Veicon.

Our Finance Department has a formula that divides the cost of IS support among city departments based largely on the number of PCs in the department. Getting our public access workstations out of this formula saved us over $100,000 a year. And that's taking into account the $30,000 or so we pay Veicon annually. We own the terminal equipment and local printers. (We plug into a Comcast broadband network for public agencies. WCCLS is a major player in that network.) Veicon owns the servers. We pay them an annual fee per workstation. Their servers are located in our city IS shop. That location is, from a network perspective, between our users and our ISP. We found this arrangement performed much better than locating the server in the Veicon headquarters.

In our configuration, the user logs on anonymously and is told that their session will end in 60 minutes (30 at Youth Services stations). At this time, authentication--against our Polaris or any other database--is not supported by Veicon. The time limit is semi-voluntary. Their session ends in 60 minutes and all sessions end at the end of library hours but there is nothing to stop a user from just going to another terminal.

We are in the process of installing the Veicon Print Cost Recovery (PCR) system. Our Tanasbourne Library is done and Shute Park Library is almost finished. We had relied on a voluntary system, asking people to pay ten cents a page. PCR works and the reduction of wasted paper is astounding. Again, the system is working with our terminals and printers and our shared WCCLS/Public network, Veicon's servers and sub-contracted software and a coin-op machines we purchased from Veicon as a third party integrated solution.

Veicon offer filtering options. They use SmartFilter which is proxy server based: we can add or subtract URLs. SmartFilter lets you filter by many categories but you have to rely on the taste of their people. We have all the terminals in the Youth Services area filtered full time. The terminals in the adult areas are not filtered by default but offer filtering as an option at logon. We are considering reversing this to make 'no-filter' the users option.

The Veicon server currently runs on Windows NT. They are working on WIN2000 which is planned for set up within a few months. The implication for Polaris users is that Polaris ActivePAC v.3 does not run on NT. As a result, we are using Polaris PowerPac in the library.

Veicon supplies monthly use statistics: logons and time online by workstation.

You mention scheduling and I assume you mean scheduling users on your public access PCs. Veicon does not have that feature released at this time.

I highly recommend Veicon. Their solution is reliable and their service is very good. They are easy to work with and very service oriented.