Tip for : 12.01.14 | Updated: October 15th, 2020

It’s easy to use Chromebooks in your library with Alexandria. They can be regular circulating items for your teachers, your patrons, or both; and/or you can use them as stations in your library.

It works well if your students are required to have Google accounts, as they can customize their own accounts, and their bookmarks and so forth will transfer across Chromebooks.

If your students don’t have Google accounts, or if you are setting up a Chromebook as a general station in your library and want an all-accessible login, you can use a Google feature called Supervised UsersFamily Link, which lets you add sub-users whose access can be limited.

manage "child" accounts by limiting access.

Add

a Chromebook as an item

1. Open Item Items Management.
2. Add a new item with the plus (+) icon.
3. Enter Chromebook in the title field and continue.
4. Select for manual entry and continue.
5. Hit Enter on your keyboard or click Search.
6. Change the title to Chromebook.
7. Change the policy (e.g. Equipment, Electric Device).
8. Add copies.
9. If necessary, enter the Serial # for each Chromebook in the Copy information Information tab.
10. Save the record.

To set up the Chromebook:

1. Log in to the Chromebook as the owner of the Chromebook.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Click on Users.
4. Uncheck Show usernames and passwords on sign-in screen.

To create Supervised Users:

1. On the Chromebook sign-in screen, click Add User.
2. To the right, unders Supervised User, click on create a supervised user.
3. Enter your or your library's Google login.
4. Give the user an image, username, and password.

To set permissions for Supervised Users:

Note: You do not need to be on the Chromebook to set these permissions.

1. Follow this link: http://www.google.com/settings/chrome/manage
2. In the Permissions area, click on Manage.
3. Choose to allow All of the web, and block certain sites, or allow Only approved sites and enter all the sites you want to allow your patrons to access.

If you choose to allow Only approved sites:

• When entering Approved sites, be sure to Allow entire domain to allow access to a website and not just a particular link.

• Patrons can request ceratain sites be added to the list of Approved sites. You will need to approve the site under Requests.

Now you can log in to the Chromebook as a Supervised User.

Use a Chromebook as a kiosk

Set up a general Google account and add it to your Chromebook. You can then use Family Link to control which apps and websites your patrons will have access to on that general Google account. 

You may also want to customize the homepage and startup page to control which website appears when you first launch Chrome on your device. Set the startup page to your kiosk link for quick setup and access.

Go ahead and bookmark the Researcher and Scout for your patrons. They can log in to the Researcher and view their details, and do searches as usual. If you use some of our partners like Capstone or Overdrive, be sure to allow access to those websites.

See also: