7-day laptop loans, lab manuals and Dprint

You wrote:

Please implement the 7-day laptop loan. It is high time. Please also make lab manuals available for more that 3 hours. Our lab sessions are 4 hours long so what is the point of loaning it for 3 hours (if you want to photocopy it, that takes 10 min, of course if the INFAMOUS D-print system happens to be working, if not it might take you 3 hours…). Why did you outsource the printing service? Yes, the system had to be updated but did it have to be outsourced? Did students, for whom this whole library construct is put into place, even have a say in this?

On March 19, the Vanier Library introduced 7-day loans on ten laptops.  For now, the libraries do not have enough laptops to expand this service.

As for extending the loan period for “lab manuals”, it is the first time that anyone has brought up this concern.  I have forwarded your request to Circulation Services.

Regarding Dprint; Dprint is managed by the University. It is not outsourced. Photocopying has always fallen under the jurisdiction of the University. Since modern photocopiers can scan, print and email, the University decided to keep all printing functions under one umbrella.  Most people would agree that having one universal system across the University is preferable to having two concurrent printing systems.

Thank you for your comments.

DPrint woes

You wrote:

I would just like to make a quick comment on the new printing system that has seen set-up a few weeks now. Yesterday, I wanted to print documents but I was
unable to because the system was down. Furthermore, I could not print anything at any of the other printing machines because I was told that when the whole system is down, one cannot print anything!  Now, I know that this new system is suppose to be  an improvement from the previous system. However, I believe that it would be reasonable to have kept one or two of the older systems as a back-up if the new system should shut-down. I hope that this issue does not occur during finals!

and

The D-Print system is extremely flawed. Today was not the first problem that I had with it, but it certainly was the most frustrating. During the time when term papers are due and finals are just around the corner, there is absolutely no reason to have added stress because of printing malfunctions/ difficulties. Today while trying to print a significant term paper, my account balance was not replenished, even though I had literally just loaded money onto my ID. ….
Now because of this mishap, I not only lost 10% on my paper because I could not print it in time, but I also lost way too much money for something that
only would have cost less than a dollar. As I am sure I am not the first or only person to have this issue I would like to suggest the idea that instead of having
these problematic “D-print loaders” that the printing system be reformed to just CHARGING to each student’s account when the ID is swiped on the printer itself.  This would ensure that people are not losing money to these flawed machines as well as stil guaranteeing that the service is paid for. McGill University, intelligently, has already implemented this type of system for years. I sincerely hope that someone actually reads these comments/ suggestions/ reports because I know for a fact that I am not the only person to come across this problem.

Thank you both for taking the time to write to the Suggestion Box.  I have shared your concerns with the Library Systems Team who in turn will share them with the University’s DPrint Team.  In the meantime, anytime you are having difficulty with one of the DPrint machines, please see one of the DPrint specialists that are available to help you during regular working hours at both libraries.   In my experience, they are very helpful and can resolve most issues that students have.

Difficult printing situation

You wrote:

I would like to commend the DPrint team for trying to provide us with fast and updated machines that can scan, print in color, and be accessible anywhere on campus. For that, we really do appreciate it. And everywhere else on campus, it seems to work very well.

But. The system is simply not functional in the library. Rather than alleviate stress as intended, it enhances it. The system is not user friendly nor self-evident in the least, the machines are balky and stubborn, consistently break down, have a ridiculous delay between print jobs, it takes forever to log in as the snazzy ‘swipe’ mechanism usually does not work, the machines log you out, and rather than tell you how much money you have left, it cheerfully churns out paper saying “lack of funds”. How is this sustainable?  How is this helpful?

I spend a good chunk of my time trying to help other hapless students struggling with the system. The back-logs are incredible, the line-ups snake up to the librarian’s desks, and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. People are panicking, and since that all the old but reliable machines have been removed, we have no alternative. The librarians are not well equipped to handle this, and in fact, have informed me that they are not even allowed to touch the machines, should there be a jam, or say, a need to fill up on the basics such as ink and paper which we desperately rely on. Instead, they are instructed to contact your team or IITS who, even if well-intentioned, will do nothing after hours, leaving us stranded.

On behalf of the Concordia student body, we implore you to address this. There should have been a pilot (actually, there was…) and have it test-driven by students. We stay hours on end in the library- we should not have to have our stress added upon due to printer malfunctioning.

Thank you for your email.  As far as I understand it, the system in the library is the same as it is elsewhere on campus.  I think that the situation may be more difficult in the Libraries, simply because we have many workstations and many students coming in at the same time.  Some printers seem to be getting line-ups while others are not used so much, because people do not know they are there.  Please take a look at this page on our website:  http://library.concordia.ca/services/computers/printing.php?guid=copierlocations .  It tells you where the printer/copiers are in the Libraries.  It also links to a listing of Dprint machines in other locations across campus. In the meantime, your comment will also be forwarded to the DPrint Team.

Printing question

You wrote: 

Is anything going to be done about overcharging at the printing stations? Often when printing something double sided, particularly when it’s an odd number of
pages, the machines round up.

For example, if something is 7 pages, the machine charges you the equivalent of 8 pages. There is no blank page at the end of the document. It’s genuinely 7 pages. I asked someone at the reference desk, and she told me its a known issue but there’s nothing they can do.

For someone who does a lot of printing, where a lot might be an odd number of pages, eventually it does add up. Is the library aware of the problem? If so, what is being done about it?

You’re right, this added cost does add up.  I asked our Systems Support Manager why this was happening. 

Early in 2009, the Libraries implemented double-sided printing in order to save paper and to help the environment.  Unfortunately, a problem was discovered with our print management software:  whenever a double-sided print job for web pages has an odd-number page count, the page count is rounded up to an even number. Consequently, a one-page print job will have two sides printed, a three-page print job will have four sides printed, and so on. Hence, students get charged an extra side for these print jobs. As far as we know, this only happens for web pages (HTML files).

Luckily, we have received few complaints concerning this problem. Students who do complain are usually glad to withdraw their complaint and accept the extra charge when it is pointed out that the problem is currently unresolvable and when they are reminded that double-sided printing saves paper and helps the environment.

Meanwhile, we hope this web-page printing problem will be resolved with future upgrades of our print management software and/or with new print drivers, but we cannot say when this will be. The Digital Store is also proposing a new network printing service for the Library’s public workstations. If the Library decides to adopt this service, then this would also eliminate the problem.

Thank you very much for asking such an interesting question.

Printing suggestion

You wrote:

Printing Suggestion  I would like to suggest the library look at implementing the printing software used in the ENCS computer labs. The only difference between what the library uses now is when the copy card is inserted into the slot, the user must enter their netname.  After which, it only shows them items that have been sent to the printer under their netname.   

Main reason is yesterday I had sent some stuff to the printer, and went to get it about 40 minutes later. It seems like someone had accidentally printed my stuff, since I saw one of the pages lying around and nothing was left in the queue. Also, it’ll just make things easier for everyone so they see all their stuff without searching for it.

Thank you for writing to us.  Your suggestion has been forwarded to our Information Systems and Technology Division.

Printing from the catalogue

You wrote:

When printing out the catalogue info to pick up a book, I was a bit frustrated to note that the information somehow is spread over three pages in print form. It could easily fit on only one! Not only is this a waste of money and paper, but isn’t there a way to set the print previews so that it only takes up the printing it warrants? Thanks.

Wasting money and paper to print blank or useless pages happens all too often and is always frustrating. Thanks for writing about this. The best way to ensure “optimal” printing from the CLUES screen for a book you want is to use the print icon on the right, just beside the RefWorks button. This should normally avoid any wasted pages, and it provides you with a good preview of what you are about to print.  If it doesn’t help with your problem, please write back to us and include your email so we can find out more about your particular situation. We never include email addresses in our online posts, we use them only for personal exchanges.

And as a side note, there is a new feature in CLUES that allows you to text the book info to your cell phone instead of printing. To learn more about it, see this Bibliofile article.

Printers

You wrote:

Hi, I use the terrific printers on the third floor of the Webster library and am so thrilled that they print double sided by default.

However, I was shocked that the memory for print jobs has been changed to only half an hour!?! Before it was an hour! As you can imagine, when you are researching, you send things to the printer under the assumption that the memory is an hour, and only print at the END- I was unaware of this completely unreasonable change and lost much of my work.

Please, students are stressed enough as it is- why on earth impose a change such as this that does not reduce, but rather adds to our stress and frustration? On behalf of the student body, please restore it to the usual time frame of an hour and until then, please put SIGNS so people are at least aware of the (hopefully) temporary change (there was none except on the printer itself, at which time, it was too late). Otherwise, people can get trapped as I was.
- frustrated, printed-less student

We are sorry to hear about your experience with the print service. Our servers have encountered some load problems and we had to reduce the time for holding the print jobs.

However, we are happy to report that we have upgraded the servers and that users now have 60 minutes to release their print jobs from the queue. This is in effect at Webster and Vanier Libraries. Sorry for your inconvenience; things shoud be better now!

Computers and Printers

You wrote:

I was just at the library to print something out. There was a lineup of about 10 people on the second floor while half the computers were being used to
watch Youtube and browse Facebook. The situation was similar on the 3rd floor; all the computers were taken but only half the people were doing work. In fact, there were a few people who were using the chairs to sit and chat. I only needed to use 1 computer for 2 minutes to send my documents to the printer, and I would have had to wait about 20-30 minutes, judging by the lineup. I know it was written before that the library doesn’t want to eliminate certain websites, but the computers are not recreational, they are meant to be used for schoolwork (and I was trying to print the documents I needed to read before class this week). Is there anything being done to regulate the computer usage?

On a more positive note, I did see 2 people being ushered out of the library because they were using their cellphones, and I do appreciate the quieter
atmosphere of the blue sections (although it is distracting to have people running in and out of the room to answer their phones every few minutes which is actually a problem I’ve encountered a few times).

Thanks for writing. I understand your frustration when you want to quickly print something and you need to wait in line to do so. Did you try using the Express Workstations on the second floor of the Webster Library? There is a time limit on those computers, and they may be faster to use for just printing. It is true that the computers at Concordia are intended to be used only for academic work; however, it is also true that we do not wish to limit the kinds of sites that students visit while they are on the Web. (Keep in mind that legitimate academic work can happen on Facebook and You Tube, although I do understand they are often used just for relaxing.) Concordia is a rapidly growing university, and at peak time we cannot always have enough computers for all the students that need them. It is our hope that students will use the computers for academic purposes so their fellow students can make their deadlines!

I am glad that you appreciate the quiet study zones! Thanks for your comments.

Scrap paper at the CLUES stations

You wrote:

Hello,

Would it possible to have some scrap papers near the CLUES-only station (especially those at the entrance of the Webster library) so that way it would be easier to note the reference and emplacement of books on it?

I think it would be another good way to follow the environmental objectives of the University by reusing old papers like those in the recycling bin near the printers.

Finally, thank you for putting the double-side printing by defaults on every computers.

Thanks for the idea. Yes, we can put scrap paper boxes at the CLUES stations near the entrance of Webster. Also, I am glad you like the double-sided printing. Thank you  for writing.

Double-sided printing

We have had a lot of feedback about the recent introduction of double-sided printing at the library.

You wrote:

It is a great idea. Instructions are clear and visible. This should avoid bad surprises when someone wants to print a single-sided assignment. On the other hand, for the reduced amount of paper, a cost reduction would be appreciated by the students. Thank you.

and, you also wrote:

Great idea! The environment is very important. Also important to pass the savings on to students or explain where the funds are going to be used. Thank you.

and, finally, you wrote:

The cost of double-sided is the same as single-sided although we are only using one sheet of paper for two prints. Should there not be a reduction of price, unless the cost of paper is only a small portion of total cost.

Thanks for all your feedback. We’re glad that you are in favour of the default double-sided printing we introduced in December.

The Library operates its printing service on a cost recovery basis – we make no profit but we have no other budget to cover the cost of toner, equipment, maintenance and paper.  The cost of paper is actually only 0.84 cents per sheet, and we had to see how successful double-sided printing would be before we could pass even that small amount on to our students. Fortunately, it has been a great success on both campuses, and since March 2 we have reduced the cost of printing from 7 to 6 cents per page.