On any given day, dozens of different users with varying levels of technology skills might work on a library's public-access computers. And while more experienced users might remember to leave the computers just as they found them, novices may forget to delete documents they've been working on, neglect to remove software they've installed, or inadvertently contract a nasty computer virus -- leaving your library's small staff to clean up the mess.

To minimize the time staffers spend maintaining their public computers, some libraries have chosen to install disk-protection software, an application that automatically reverts a computer to a previous state. Disk-protection programs first take a snapshot of a system in its "clean" state. Then, the disk-protection program's administrator configures the software to automatically shut down each computer at a specific time -- say, midnight each day -- and restore it to its original state. That way, no matter what changes computer users have made over the course of the day, the machines will return to their original state as soon as they are rebooted.

The Suwannee Regional Library System, which operates eight libraries across three North Florida counties, has had positive experiences using Faronics' Deep Freeze , a disk-protection program that offers volume pricing discounts to libraries and nonprofits.

"We’ve been using Deep Freeze for a little while and really like it," said Sherry Millington, a staff member at the Suwannee Regional Library System. " We set up a profile that’s for the public access [computers with] limited access to administrative type things like getting into the device manager, that sort of thing. And they’re all passworded so that the staff can restart the machines between users to clear everything out and bring everything back to square one."

Tonya Boltz, a staff member at the Keokuk Public Library in Keokuk, IA, said that implementing Deep Freeze was the best technology decision her library has ever made. "It has saved me many headaches," said Boltz. "And it is easy to maintain."

Editors Note: Some of the content for this story comes from WebJunction.

Other popular disk-protection programs include CenturionGuard -- in use at the Garnavillo Public Library in Garnavillo IA -- and Norton Ghost.