That the Hamilton Public Library Board approves the allocation of up to $170,000 from the Library General Development Reserve #106007 to carry out this project over three years.

This project would allocate up to $170,000.00 from the Library General Development Reserve and transfer funds to a new capital project to refresh the print services till 2020.

Each year, printer & photocopier revenues are transferred to this reserve to fund future replacements.  To date, $438,491 has been transferred and is earmarked for printer/photocopier replacement.  Staff are requesting to use $170,000 of this allocation which would leave $268,391 remaining for use on future printer/photocopier purchases.

It is estimated that $60,000 covers the cost of replacing 14 aging printers that are causing interruption in service. Up to $110,000 is required to implement a new print solution which includes, hardware, installation and software for two years to enable WiFi and flexible printing service form anywhere, print payment and enhanced and secure services for customers and staff. 

Hamilton Public Library reviewed its inventory of 64 stand alone and all-in-one printers for life expectancy, usage, and maintenance history to determine a replacement plan. Staff identified 13 printers and 1 plotter that should be replaced by 2020. The remaining 50 printers will be reviewed in a few years to determine the next replacement cycle.

The printers proposed for replacement are 6-10 years old; the majority are 9 years. They have large print volumes, high impression counts, and a history of issues and constant breakdown causing repeated disruption of service to the public.

In addition, staff identified the need to update our printing services to make printing more accessible, flexible and reliable to improve customer service and efficiency. Printing, scanning and photocopying services continue to experience high customer demand with the trend going upwards. While we have a robust service offering across the system, the current environment has some limitations that the new solution should address as follows: 

• Wi-Fi printing is not available for customers to print from their mobile devices or when using the new Laptop Kiosks available at the renovated Binbrook and Dundas branches. 
  • The new solution should allow printing from anywhere and anytime using wireless, and from mobile allowing customers to pay online and pick up their print from any branch.
• There is no authentication before releasing print jobs which creates privacy concerns to customers and may limit staff use of the same devices.
  • The new solution should enable customers and staff to release their documents using their library card in a secure manner.
• The use of release stations is limited to photocopying and is not cost effective. The copy controller is a standalone service to pay and copy documents.
  • The new solution should enable customers to print, copy and scan documents directly at the printer using their library card and using a common payment capacity.
• There is no support to embed barcode scanners directly to the devices. Scanning to email is disabled and use of USB scanning is very manual and causes lots of errors resulting in numerous demands on staff to support it.
  • The new solution should validate scanning against library card holder information in Polaris and allow them to scan directly to emails in a secure manner.
• The current system does not maintain secure and confidential scanning logs for security.   
  • The new solution should keep track of logs to provide accountability for scan service.
• The current system limits options for payment, photocopying and scanning and provides basic reporting that is not customizable to meet staff needs. 
  • The solution should be flexible to allow use of funds across services as well as include better reporting and data export features to track usage and reconcile information  while maintaining security and customers confidentiality.

The library has joined efforts with 8 other libraries in South Western Ontario to research and negotiate collectively a common solution that would meet most of the libraries’ needs. The libraries plan to share resources to identify and implement an integrated print solution that can provide users improved services and enhanced security.