COMPANY TO RENT OUT COMPUTERS

SUN-SENTINEL

Personal computers soon could be as accessible at the local library as the coin-operated photocopier. Just sit down, slip in a dollar and type away.

That is the scenario Sysnetics hopes to bring about within the next year. The Deerfield Beach manufacturer put its first two currency-operated computers in the Broward County Main Library in downtown Fort Lauderdale and hopes to put 800 computer workstations in libraries and college dormitories throughout Florida within six months.

The computers, which rent for $8 an hour in $1 increments, are equipped with recent versions of popular word processing programs and spreadsheets, including Word Perfect 5.0 and Lotus 1-2-3.

If you are a word processing novice, you are welcome to ask the librarian for the manual and let the computer take you through its step-by-step tutorial.

Bruce Bechtold, president of Sysnetics, claims if you are patient and pay attention, you can teach yourself Word Perfect on the machine in about two to three hours.

You should know, however, that the librarian cannot help you out of a jam. She probably does not know anything more about the machine than you do. If you get stuck, you will have to call a number posted nearby to get help from the manufacturer.

"The major complaint is from people who don't use the manuals and don't read the screens," said Phyllis B. Cartwright, former director of the library's main branch who oversaw the installation of the system.

Eleanor Jo Rodger, executive director of the Chicago-based Public Library Association, warned that, "In many cases, we get angry patrons because librarians may not give them what they need.

"If the library has installed a public access computer, the public will expect the library staff to help them," just as librarians often are asked for tax advice when the library distributes tax forms, she said.

The currency-operated computer is the brainchild of Bechtold, who founded Sysnetics earlier this year to market the machine. In 1986, when Bechtold had his own company, Miami-Dade Community college asked to rent computer equipment. The obstacle: "We couldn't figure out how to control the system."

On Christmas Day 1986, Bechtold dreamed up the idea of a currency-driven machine. After experimenting with prototypes, he now has a final product and a patent pending on the device.

Sysnetics plans to sell the systems to area distributors, charging $16,000 for a two-terminal AT system, including the printer. Distributors will offer the system to libraries and colleges free of charge. Libraries will need to provide floor space and access to an electrical outlet.

To aid the marketing effort, Bechtold will count on Cartwright, who joined the company as marketing director after retiring from the county library system last week She plans to sell the system as a service that libraries can offer to their public at no cost.

Both Sysnetics and the library would receive 5 percent of the proceeds from the machine's use, Bechtold said. A subsidiary of Sysnetics will own the Florida distributorship. Other distributors throughout the country will be able to control the cost computer time, charging anywhere from $1 per minute to $1 for two hours.

Using the Broward County library's 40 percent usage as an example, two machines that are used roughly 30 hours a week would yield a total of $480 a week.

The machines are equipped with dual floppy disk drives, which allows users to bring their own programs or store their work on a disk and take it away. A printer is installed at the workstation, spitting out printouts for $1 for six pages. Sysnetics will install vending machines selling floppy disks ($1 for two disks) and paper ($1 for 50 sheets).

If you want to use the Sysnetics machine, come equipped with plenty of dollar bills, especially if you think you will be there for a while. A warning light goes on when you have two minutes left so you can store your material. But once you run out of time, you only have three minutes to hunt for dollars before your data gets wiped out.

The machine has been on the second floor of Broward's Main Library since late April and will remain for a 90-day trial, said Cartwright, who retired from the library last week and joined Sysnetics as its marketing director.

Users have ranged from a young woman who taught herself word processing at the machine to two men who met there during their lunch hours to play chess. Others have put their mailing lists on the machine.

Cartwright estimated that most of the usage occurs during the evenings and weekends.

College dormitories could be another potential market for the machine, Bechtold said. Students who are not required to own personal computers have to hike to the campus computer center -- and often wait in a long line -- to use the machine. A dorm machine would save the walk and the wait, he said.

Sysnetics rented a booth at the Florida Library Association's Jacksonville convention last month. Bechtold said he received favorable responses from attendees and is gearing up for production of about 800 machines.

The company, which now employs four technicians, three software writers and five management people, expects to gear up to manufacture 50 of the machines a week.

Down the road, Sysnetics plans to offer on-line database access linked with a computer scanner. This would allow users to get and reprint information directly onto their own floppy disks.

Broward County will evaluate the machine after the three-month trial period is over and decide whether to keep the machine at the main branch, offer it to all its branches or get rid of it altogether, library director Cecil Beach said.

"What we would like to do is have computers people could use for free, but that would take a lot of capital funds, which we don't have," he said.

Copyright © 2021, Sun Sentinel
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