"I use VendPrint as the print controller in the library. Right now 109 computers print to two Network printers, all going through the vendprint program. The jobs go to a release station (a PC sitting on the counter in the library) and if the account has no money in it, the job stops there and waits. Since on PCs each student has an individual log in, that becomes their VP account number, too. No one has an account until they attempt to print, then it is automatically created. We run the program on the cheap, in that we do not have an actual vending machine for adding money, and we do not buy the credit type copy cards. My library tech and I just collect the 5 cents per page or collect the amount of money the student wants to put into their account. So it is a little labor intensive, but it saves us so much money on ink and paper it is worth it. The students wait by the release station if their paper doesn't show up on the top of the printer.

Much of the day all the computers in the library are in use. In a days time we usually have about 1/4 ream of paper wasted, and print about 2 reams. Teachers come to the library to print because I do not charge them. I can set the release station so that their printing is unlimited.

We use the program on a separate release station for a color printer. I do not use accounts on it, just charge EVERYONE, teachers included 25 cents per page. We have the color release station set so that it will only accept one page per job, each and every page has to be sent to print individually. This prevents errors, like someone printing 10 pages in color when they only want one. It is time consuming but I couldn't afford to print color on a color laser printer otherwise.

The tech support from VP has been excellent, even to making weekend appointments with us so that they could talk to Lyle. We have had virtually no problems with it, especially as the network becomes more and more stable. Since the color print server has been given its own port and isn't running off a hub, its performance has vastly improved.

One advantage to this compared to the sales pitch from other companies is that it has been in use for 3+ years. When I first began I let the kids have 30 free pages at the beginning of the school year, then 20, this year NONE. To me in creating computer services for the students over the last 16 years, the biggest constant hassle has been printing. VP has really assisted in making this manageable.”

Tim O'Shaughnessy, Library/Media Center
Moline High School — Moline, Illinois

“At Moline High School, we have K-12 VendPrint set up to control the B&W printing on the 22 computers in the library proper, and three computer labs connected with the Library Media Center. (30 in each lab, two MAC and one PC). (The control will be expanded next year to include 5 more labs on the floor above us.) I will be controlling three new HP6500N printers after the first of the year.

Two years ago, I approached my administration about doing SOMETHING about the rampant, wasteful printing. I was going through toner cartridges on our 3 HP4000s every 3-4 weeks. At that time, VendPrint was the only affordable solution for our school. We have approx. 2200 students with a huge social-economic span. Because some could pay for all prints and many could not pay for **any** prints, we knew we had to put some kind of subsidized plan into effect. We decided to survey every teacher and ask how many printed pages they **required** the students to turn into them in an average year. The total came out to approx. 87 pages.

The administration and I decided that we would give every student a budget of 100 B&W pages per school year. This would allow for a few mistakes and re-prints. Administration transfers into our annual budget the money equivalent of 48 cases of paper to provide for the "budget." Toner cartridges are still coming from my library budget accounts. However, it is a wash, because some students don' t use the full 100 pages, and we get to keep those "unused" budgeted dollars to pay for toner cartridges.

If a student runs through his budgeted 100 pages, he must pay a minimum of $1.00 for 10 more pages. No credit or extensions (unless special arrangements are made very quietly in the background).
VendPrint is setup so that the first time a student logs onto the network and sends a print job to a printer, VendPrint automatically generates a student account and credits that account 100 pages. Teacher accounts are also automatically generated the first time they log into the network and send a print job to the printers. However, teachers automatically get unlimited printing. (The system DOES track how many sheets they are printing, and if an individual is using the computer printers as a photocopy machine, the Principal has a conversation with them.

If the student generates a print request, the print job goes to our WIN2000 network server, hits a PAUSED printer queue, and sits there. (In a networked environment, every printer has a print queue on a server, someplace. You have to find that queue for the set-up.) The VendPrint Release Station polls the paused printer queues every 3-5 seconds. If VendPrint sees a print job waiting in the queue, it checks the user's network login name, and compares it against the account database. If there are sufficient pages left in the budget for the print job, VendPrint sends a message to the Server print queue to release the print job. Note: Vendprint also has a “client pop-up” feature that will notify students how many pages are in the current print job and how much it will cost them. It also will notify students of their current account balance. This pop-up works with Windows, Macintosh, and Unix and Linex clients.


Advice:

• The network print queues MUST be on a Windows 2000, 2003 or Win XP server. Sorry, no MAC servers allowed.
  
  
• Your network administrator MUST give you (the VendPrint administrator login account) significant rights to the Windows 2000, 2003 or XP server print queues. If you have a paranoid (or judicious) network administrator, begin involving him from the start of your plan to implement printing controls.
  
  
• The VendPrint release station can be any old Win 98/NT/Win2000 computer. I ordered a stripped-down Win2000 machine with 256Mb of RAM, 40 GB HDD, and a CD-ROM. I would strongly recommend as much RAM as possible. While 256Mb RAM will work OK, I was amazed at the increased speed with 768Mb or RAM.
  
  
• Your print records need to be "cleaned out" intermittently. When mine reached 80,000 print records, it jammed up the CPU ( 99% CPU utilization) and the release station freezes. It’s easy to export the print records into Excel and save them for later manipulation
  
  
• Promote the coming of VendPrint heavily. Talk to every teacher and class that might use the labs. I put signs on **every** computer telling students about their 100 page budget. I spoke to every class using the labs. I sent mailings to each teacher. When VendPrint was activated, the budget was enforced and the $1 recharge rule was adhered to. Most of the kids have absolutely no problem with the printing control, and see it as very fair to everyone.
  
  
• The installation manual has come a long way. The phone support is **excellent**. When we were initially getting set up, the support staff spent almost two hours on the phone with me, on several occasions. (The problem was NOT with their software, but with our messed-up network.) With the newest version of VendPrint (v. 2.70) the installation, while detailed, is very easy. The operations manual is excellent. The phone support is still excellent.
  
  
• There are now several print control applications out there. However, this one is good enough that the University of Iowa (a Big 10 school with 40,000+ students) went with VendPrint for all 15 of their main and satellite libraries!”

Diane Chamblee
Bridge City High School

“VendPrint is wonderful! We are using it with 9-12 grade students. The librarian before me let students print for free. She only had ten computers and limited internet access, so it was not a big problem. In our new building, I have 35 computers with internet access. Since we all know that kids will hit the PRINT button rather than read, I discovered that in just one class period students were printing 10-20 websites each, each site having 40+ pages. Needless to say, 25-30 students per class, seven class periods each day, will literally print thousands of copies daily unless they are held accountable in some way (i.e. spending their own money to pay for printing!)

I started last year by giving each student a 'complimentary' $3 account (at .05 per copy, this gave them 60 free prints) to get them used to being held accountable for their printing. When that ran out, they had the option to add money to their account, or bring a floppy disk, save work, and print at home. If they don't open an account, they can also save to a floppy disk and bring it to my circulation desk to have work printed at .10 per copy. I also offer 'incentives' periodically during the year to encourage students to open an account (50 free prints when you open your account at beginning of school registration, 10 free prints with each dollar added to account, etc.)”

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