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The article describes how Coquitlam Public Library in British Columbia moved its public access computers (PAC) from a Windows-based to a Linux-based operating system in 2003. In the mid-1990s the library started offering PAC to its patrons by using an Industry Canada Community Access Program grant and funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the years, the library managed to afford a few replacements but could not keep up with the general wear and tear and changes in technology. In 2003, the head of the library's systems department attended a conference in Toronto where she saw a demonstration of DiscoverStation, a Linux-based public access solution developed by Userful. One of DiscoverStation's most interesting features is that it allows up to 10 people to work independently from a single computer. The system is built specifically for public access use in libraries. The library decided to adopt DiscoverStation, and after the evaluation period, it made a 3-year commitment to DiscoverStation and purchased four computers to support 20 stations. In late December 2003, each branch of the library got one six-station box and one four-station box. A Userful representative was present to help in the set up and installation, and to do some initial staff training after the stations were ready.

Every library where I have worked has held fundraisers, mostly book sales that were sometimes combined with bake sales. In Monroeville, we are lucky to have an active Friends of the Library group that takes care of the annual used book sale, which brings people to us in droves during that weekend. Both of these events raise money, but if we depended entirely on them, our budget would be very small. Perhaps even greater than the amount of money they raise is the value of bringing people into the library. The Library Support Staff.com Web site has a section titled "See what others have done," which offers links to some interesting ideas for library fundraisers. I found that some of the links were not working, but I did successfully follow the link to the Nova Scotia Provincial Library to learn of its fund-raising activities and to see an article in Urban Parks online that discussed "affinity groups" that worked to raise funds for the San Francisco Public Library.