USB network?

[Simon Briggs]

Am thinking of switching my wife to Apple.
We have some duplicate equipment, scanners, printers.
Question... Can I set up two G4's to share (via a Hub) 1 scanner and 
printer?
so if 1 machine is off the hardware is still available?
I know I could set up USB printer sharing but this will not help with 
the scanner!

PS if there are (cheap) options involving ethernet we ARE networked too?

TIA
Simon Briggs
G4/400 Sawtooth
OS10.2/Superdrive/CDRW/ 704Mb Ram