Newton Citizen

COVINGTON -- In an effort to improve services for the patrons of Newton County, the downtown Covington location of the Newton County Library System will replace 21 computers during October.

"We would like to thank the Heartland Women's Club for their donation of $2,500 from the 2012 Croquet Tournament, which made purchasing several of the new computers possible," said Library Director Lace Keaton.

The current 21 computers in the adult area of the library used for Internet service are more than 8 years old and are no longer able to keep up with the demands of current technology.

Newton County Library Board of Trustees voted at the Aug. 2 board meeting to replace the outdated computers and add three more computers.

"We received daily comments on how slow the computers were and realized we needed to take action to provide better service for our patrons. Each computer session is 50 minutes long and often patrons were not able to complete their work within the time allotted," said Keaton.

Over the past eight years, the 21 computer terminals have logged in more than 369,000 sessions. The replacement life of a public library computer is generally three years.

The new DELL commercial grade computers were purchased under state contract for $807 each, for a total of $19,368.

Due to the high volume of anticipated use, these computers are designed to be more robust and to last longer than a home computer, while still remaining affordable, according to Keaton.

The remainder of the funds for the computers will come from the recent sale of the Covington branch reference shelves on the auction site govdeals.com at $3,700; cancellation of leases on outdated office equipment, which will yield $7,792; and from the general fund, at $5,376.

The older computers, which were purchased with government funds, will be available for auction on govdeals.com.