Questions about Printing

 

From Michael W. 1/20/15

 

Here are the questions I have received today from our Reference Librarians concerning the Campus Printing System along with the answers I have dug up.

1.      What happens when there is a problem with the print system, i.e., a meltdown, after ITD Help Desk is closed?

a.      LTS has a direct line which they will call as soon as a major outage has been reported and verified.

2.      How much do MTSU Faculty/Staff printouts cost per page?

a.      Faculty/Staff are not directly charged for their printing.  All charges are billed to the department on campus that employs them.

b.      The amount charged to their department is $.017 per page.

3.      What happens when a student puts in their Pipeline Username and Password rather than their MTmail Username and Password?

a.      A student’s email login and pipleline login are the same, but their passwords may not be.

b.      Since the login system is looking for their email login and password, it assumes that someone is keying in the wrong password and may be trying to break into their account, so it locks their login after a number of missed attempts.

c.      To unlock the account, the patron will have to contact the ITD help desk at 898-5345

4.      What is going on when a patron tries to print and the EIC printers are not coming up?

a.      The campus print system has had a hiccup and the print kiosk requires a reboot.  Contact LTS.

5.      Does it hurt for a student to turn off a PC after they finish?

a.      When the first person of the days logs onto a PC it takes a while for the campus printer to be published to the PC.  The next person who logins in will not have that wait.

b.      If the machine is turned off or rebooted, it starts the whole sequence over again.

c.      Patrons should log off using the desktop Logoff Icon.

6.      Why is duplex printing not working consistently throughout the building?

a.      RJ Young and ITD are working together to get this corrected. 

7.      Should a student log off the release station when they finish printing?

a.      For security reasons each student should log off at the print kiosk after they finish printing.

b.      Not logging off also slows down the traffic flow at a kiosk.

8.      How should we explain what a printed page is?

a.      Maybe instead of referring to it as a page, we should refer to it as each side of a page that is printed.

9.      How do Community/Alumni Patrons print?

a.      When they get a password at the Service Desk they are issued a flash drive (supplied by ITD).

b.      They should print all of their work to the Adobe PDF printer and save the output to the flash drive.

c.      They should take the flash drive to the Community/Alumni printer next to the LTS desk to print their work.

9.      How do I check my print quota and how do I add more pages to it?

a.      The answer is:  go to http://blueid.mtsu.edu and login with your pipeline credentials and it will give you the status of all of your RaiderFunds categories, including Print Quota.  Once you run out of PrintQuota, the system starts taking money from your RaiderFunds to cover the cost.  On that same webpage you can add more dollars to your RaiderFunds using a credit/debit card. 

 

 

 

 

From Kristen W. 1/20/15

 

More about community/alumni printing and photocopying from my own observation and per Al Camp:

• Pay with cash (no coins) or credit card (forget to check which cards it accepts)
• No change returned if using cash
• Cash users will use the card kiosk to obtain a free ExpressPay Cash Card, to which they will then add money (minimum $1)
• Printer/Photocopier accepts credit card (forgot to check which ones) or the ExpressPay Cash Card
• $0.10 each B/W letter or legal page, plus $0.01 tax each page = $0.11 per page
•  Unused funds on an ExpressPay card remain on the card for future use.
•  Documents to print must be on a flash drive. Al says the printer will recognize and print a variety of files including Word, PPT, PDF, JPG and other images, but not an Excel file. User can preview and accept or discard the print before it is made. I watched a user print a Word file tonight. The safest answer, of course, is to have everything saved as a PDF per the instructions below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raider Funds Deposit

Students can go to https://blueid.mtsu.edu to deposit Raider funds for printing. This information is not yet listed on the Raider funds page at: http://www.mtsu.edu/tuition/raider-funds.php (as of today). The Library no longer has any Raider Funds cash terminals.

BAS Computer Lab Summer Location

Temporary University Lab Hours - BAS S302

Open Mon-Fri 9AM-6PM
(when university is open) 

Scheduled Closings
CUSTOMS dates
    various dates/times

Monday, May 26th
    Open May 27th, 9am

Friday, July 4th
      Open July 7th, 9am

Lab closes for semester:
Friday, August 8th, 6:00pm

The main lab offices temporarily located in the BAS Suntrust Room (first floor of the North lobby)

http://www.mtsu.edu/businesslab/about/labrenovations.php 

Clearing Library Holds during Early Registration

Amanda Damaschun and Peggy Colflesh are checking several times per day to clear registration holds for library fines and fees that have been paid during the early registration period which runs from April 2-13, 2012. Normally, we ask for one business day before the holds are lifted. Keep in mind that those paying after Peggy and Amanda leave for the day or on Sunday will need to wait until the next morning before they get cleared and can register. However, if a student that has paid brings a copy of their receipt to the Circulation Desk at any time we are open they can get cleared immediately. Let's give a round of applause to Circulation for providing timely service to our students!

Sharon

Adobe Problems

The Reference Desk computers are experiencing sporadic problems with the Adobe reader and printer functions.  If you get an error message or a debug report message while viewing or attempting to print a PDF document, the only solution so-far is to restart (not just log-off and then back on) the computer.  Computer Support suggested that as a precaution, we should manually restart the Reference Desk computers each day instead of just logging-off. 

D2L troubles in the library

If a student asks for help with a D2L error, check what browser they are using. D2L doesn't like IE9, which is what we have in the library. Have them launch Firefox, and that may fix the problem.

Computer Support Desk

As Christy mentioned in an earlier e-mail, Jerrica Williams is the daytime supervisor at the Computer Support Desk. Her email is jlw7m[at]mtmail[dot]mtsu[dot]edu and her phone number is 904-8542. Al is the interim night supervisor (yay for us).

Also, oversight of the computer support area has passed from Ann to Mike Wheaton.

Pipeline Login for Retirees

Retirees who don't already have one can apply for an email address and Pipeline account by completing this form and returning it to Cope Room 003, Fax (615)898-5720. The retiree must have an M number, so he or she may need to make a trip to the ID office first.

Presumably, this will allow the retiree to login to library computers without obtaining a guest password each time.

You can determine whether or not a retiree has a Pipeline login by calling the ITD help desk at 5345.

-Amy

Guest Passwords Redux

Due to a technical glitch regarding Alumni access to the Library's public computers, starting immediately, the Service Desk will resume issuing Guest Logins to non-MTSU library users who wish to use the computers. This means they will be able to print again.

Additionally, the Service Desk will also be giving out a login and password for non-MTSU affiliates who bring a laptop and want to access the wireless network. There will be no printing capabilities through this login/password. Also, this is a static login/password and will not change daily as does the Guest Login.Questions, comments, concerns, let me know!

Thanks!
C

Recreational Computer Use on Public Computers

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Recreational Computer Use on Public Computers -- Please Read
Date: Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:56:08 -0500
From: Christy Groves
To: usall@ulibnet.mtsu.edu, lduke@mtsu.edu


Hello everyone.
The Administrative Office has asked that those working at the Reference desk serve as a back up for the following situation:

Because our computers are so very busy at the moment, the EIC student assistant on duty is now to be vigilant of students seeking a computer and unable to find an open one. For only the computers in the EIC lab, the EIC assistant is to help students unable to find an open computer get access to one. They are to discreetly search the area and locate someone using a computer for non academic use. Granted, this is quite subjective and may be difficult to determine. However, they are to try to find someone obviously surfing, shopping, gaming, etc. and gently ask them to relocate to a computer on one of the upper floors or to one of the stand up terminals by the Reference Desk, stating that the computers in the EIC lab are to be used for research and study activities.

The computers on the upper floors can be used for research or non academic use, just he same as always. The EIC students do not have to be vigilant of non academic use of the computers in the upper floors.

Again, the Admin Office has asked that those working at the Ref desk serve as a back up for the EIC student should such a need arise. As always, if the situation becomes even more problematic or if the user becomes in any way confrontational, we can contact the Service Desk for further help.

Hopefully, this situation will settle down soon.

Please let me know if you have any questions, comments, concerns, etc.

Thanks!
C