Paperless society? What a load of scrap

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into issues encountered in maintaining library technologies on a limited budget and with limited personnel. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses real‐world experiences and data to report on the costs associated with the provision of high‐volume print capabilities in an active academic computing area in a large university library. Findings – While advances in technology have changed higher education greatly, students and instructors alike still depend heavily on the printed page. Moreover, easy access to high‐volume printers seems to encourage indiscriminate printing and wasteful behavior. Originality/value – This paper offers insights and real world experiences encountered in an active computing facility. It presents data on printing and provides some suggestions for reining‐in waste associated with unnecessary printing.