Instead, we buy more and more until our budgets are strained and we've run out of space. At my own library, we hoped to reduce the amount of staff time required to assign and monitor the computers. Here is a summary of the responses I received, followed by a description of the method we chose to adopt. Everyone has a fixed time limit for Internet use if others are waiting. For most libraries, it's either 30 minutes or an hour, but one library has a two-hour limit, while another allows 90 minutes.
Most libraries allow users to sign up anywhere from one to seven days in advance.
Have people wait within earshot of the reference or circulation desk. Have a row of chairs for people to sit in while waiting. The person in the first chair is next in line. One person suggested giving patrons a vibrating pager, as upscale restaurants sometimes do, but I don't know of any library that has tried this method. The book gives some general guidelines, but I didn't find it as helpful as the more specific suggestions I was getting in response to my query.