Library’s cost of printing is too high

During a school day, students often find themselves needing to print hard copies of or finish up a homework assignment. In many cases, paying a visit to the library is the go-to solution.

Unfortunately, students are sometimes unable to find coins to pay the library’s printing fee of 25 cents per printed page, thus preventing them from printing out their assignments and turning in their homework on time.

Although 25 cents might not be a lot for an entire print job, this cost can pile up quickly if students need to print at school often, making printing expensive for students.

Because of the library’s cost of printing, many students have turned to other outlets, such as the Journalism Room, along with various other teachers’ classrooms, which give students places to print without a cost.

However, they may have found that recently, the printers in the Journalism Room have become unavailable for use. This is because students’ frequent printing of their homework assignments has caused the $100 ink toners to run dry every few weeks. In turn, journalism adviser Michael Tyler has chosen to remove the toner cartridges during some tutorials in an effort to prevent students from printing there.

Tyler said the journalism program can’t continue to pay for so much toner for non-journalism purposes.

All of this suggests needs to give students more and better on-campus printing options.

The primary complaint from students is that the cost of printing in the library is too high. While it is reasonable that the library must be able to cover its own printing costs, data collected by OfficeLink suggests that the average cost of printing a typical black and white page is only between 5 and 8 cents. The library does not offer color printing.

A better price to charge students could be 10 cents per page like other schools, such as Lynbrook, do. Ten cents is significantly lower than the current price but still makes up for expenses.

The school could also try facilitating the purchasing of a large number of printing pages at once near the beginning of the school year and refilling their pages when necessary. This change would also allow the library to budget more easily around costs as all students would pay the fees in advance.

Yet another possible solution could be using the new student center being built in the 800 wing as a place for printing stations, where students can print at a more reasonable cost. The central location could serve as a convenience for students to print, so perhaps ASB could begin fundraising for printers — and also make money by offering cheaper-priced printing.

Simply put, the current cost of printing in the library is a ripoff, and students need more reasonable options on campus.