Printing in the Reference area
Although we have been trying to keep our toner costs down by funneling students to print their papers, spreadsheets, etc. into Les's computer labs (where their page count will get registered to their Novell account) this is probably an example of a hassle we need to reconsider.
From the students' point of view, they don't really care if their printing is paid for by the IT department or the Library..... and I'm not sure we should care either. Ultimately, the tab is all being picked up by Rollins College. So I'd like to just let students print what they want from our terminals.
The one exception is multiple print-outs, ESPECIALLY if they are powerpoint presentations. Those powerpoints are massive toner-hogs, and students sometimes want to print out 20 copies for everyone in their class. Les has a policy of one copy only, and most students know that. I've got no problem enforcing that policy.
posted by Dorothy at 1:49 PM
2 Comments:
Interesting idea. I have a couple of associated ones as you think about this. Why do we make these computers any different from any other public PCs at Rollins? What would it be like if they were exactly the same as ones in the IT labs?
5:36 PM
If we were to mirror what they do in the labs, the students would log in via Novell for each session. This would give them complete access to their Word, Excell files, etc. I believe the reference area would become a mini-computer lab, complete with the associated problems of computer shortage. Even now there are times when most of the reference terminals are full, and I think that would become a standing problem if they were able to log into their Novell accounts. Sometimes students prefer the reference area because they know they will not be booted out for a class, as often happens in the computer labs.
I'm open to the idea of installing Novell on the reference computers, but I believe it will bring a lot of problems, and have very little upside for us.
12:26 PM
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