Manuals :Surplus Re: UK

From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>
Date: Fri May 25 18:35:05 2001

On Fri, 25 May 2001, joe wrote:

> At 12:09 PM 5/25/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >At 08:19 AM 5/25/01 -0400, joe wrote:
> > >>The prblem with school equipment is the disposals policy. As they are
> > bought
> > >>with public money the requirements for disposal are very strict. In my
> > area
> > >>the policy is:
> > >>
> > >>1) Offer to other departments
> > >>2) Offer to other schools
> > >>3) Offer to other local authority departments
> > >>4) Offer to charitable institutions
> > >>5) Offer to staff
> > >
> > > The policy in the US is the same except there's no **requirement** to
> > offer the stuff to the staff. Although mandy places do.
> >
> >And here, they're required to erase all software, and apparently
> >any docs or disks also get chucked before the item is put up
> >for surplus sale.
>
> >- John
>
>
>
>
> Shoot! Usually they just pull and trash the hard drive :-( I don't
> know what happens to the books but it's rare to get manuals with ANYTHING
> that gets surplused. I've heard rumors that because of copyright laws (or
> some othe lame reason) they can't "re-sell" the manuals and have to destroy
> them. Does anyone know what the exact reason is?
>
> Joe

I cannot say that I 'know', but my guess would be a combination of
laziness and ignorance. First, the people who used the equipment are
much more interested in getting the replacement equipment installed and
to learn more about it. If they do bother to box up manuals, it is
unlikely that they are segregated by machine or even generically.
Second, the people who actually do the surplussing from the organization
don't know (and don't care) about what goes with which. Far easier to
palm them all off on some paper recycler, or worse.

                                                 - don
Received on Fri May 25 2001 - 18:35:05 BST