Abuse of library printing leads to change

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Abuse of an older policy in which printing from the library was free led to
the current policy of paying for each page printed.

Several students have questioned why printing is allowed for free in the on-campus
computer labs but not in the new library.

“We did have free printing for a while, but it was eating us out of house
and home,” said Thomas Moore, dean of Libraries.

Moore said he believes the problem stemmed from the fact that the computer
systems are so good.

“We saw that people had a tendency to not read anything if they could
print it, so they were literally printing reams and reams of paper,” he
said.

Moore said to a lesser extent, that it is a public library also is a factor.

“If we were to allow students to print for free, we’d have to start
distinguishing between them, members of the community, high school students
and the like,” he said. “Right now we don’t know who’s
in here.”

Though the question has been raised several times, Moore said he is aware
the contradiction exists between printing in the computer labs and printing
in the library.

“My understanding is that the cost for printing in the labs is absorbed
by the technology fee, but the library fee that students pay only goes toward
building operation,” he said. “Things like the electricity, gas and
water.”

Moore said he is in favor of a proposed idea in which students are allowed
to print a certain number of pages for free from anywhere on campus, and pay
for each page thereafter.

“We just can’t do that right now, because the initial cost of networking
every single computer on campus is just too high, especially with the current
budget situation,” he said.

Moore said heavy usage also could factor into the price.

“That equipment sees heavy use, and those pieces of equipment are not
cheap.”

Tom Trionfi, director of Purchasing Services, oversees the purchase of paper
for all of the on-campus computer labs.

“We pay about 1/2 penny per page, and buy about 165,000 to 180,000 pages
per year,” he said.

The low price is achieved because CMU buys directly from a paper mill instead
of from a dealer who would charge additional fees.

“We get about one truckload of paper per month, and we discourage independent
buying by the departments in the university,” Trionfi said.