RACHEL GRESHAM | staff writer
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Rachel Gresham
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| Graduate music student AMBER BURDICK copies her music sheets and utilizes free copying. |
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Extra long lines, foreign beeping sounds, confused voices and excited students can only mean one thing: a new printing system in the library.
Since the old printing contract expired before break, all the libraries, along with the Cougar Dome, have implemented a new printing system that requires Cougar Bucks to print or copy, and to help the transition to the new printers, the week of Feb. 16 to 20 was made a free-printing week.
“I already like the new system because I don’t have to deal with loose change and the print quality is much better,” freshman athletic training major Chelsey Soler said.
Senior theology major Ryan Bishop, however, was disappointed.
“I had a little jar of change that I would grab a handful of to go print,” Bishop said.
While the nickels and dimes that students save up for printing are no longer accepted, one perk of this system includes color printing/copying for $0.50 in Marshburn and Darling Libraries.
In addition to Cougar Bucks, the self-service kiosks installed into Marshburn and Darling Libraries will allow students to put special non-refundable printing-only dollars on their cards using cash ($1, $5, $10, and $20 bills, no coins).
The kiosks began operation Feb. 16 and give an option to students who need to print at two in the morning and have no Cougar Bucks, as well as to guests who utilize the campus library. Guests can place money on a temporary ID that will hold their printing dollars for up to a year.
Junior theology major Peter Hawisher experienced a rough time with the new printers when he could not log in and had to get a guest pass to activate the printer.
“I’m very unconfident that it would ever work when I need to turn in a paper urgently, which is basically whenever I am printing anything,” Hawisher said.
With the new printing system, one click on the libraries’ computers sends the document to a “virtual printer.” A student can then print that document from any of the nine new printers on campus. At the printer, a user simply enters an ID and password, and then it prints the document. The Cougar Bucks are automatically detected on the account without even swiping the card.
“Until we had the free-print week, the new system was highly unfortunate. I didn’t like it because I didn’t have Cougar Bucks, which was frustrating, and when I couldn’t remember my password I couldn’t print. But they made up for it with free-printing,” senior global studies and psychology major Jenna Moll said.
Free-printing week transpired Feb. 16-20 to thank students for their patience and to get them accommodated to the new system before midterm papers are due.
“The purpose of free-printing week was to drive student confidence that it works. The old system was prone to problems, but this one has already exceeded expectations with the amount of volume that’s been going through in the last week,” IMT Chief Technology Officer Jeffrey Birch said.
Several students engaged in excessive printing and utilizing copy machines as much as possible during the free printing. Hawisher said everybody was printing everything just because they could. During one day of free-printing week, the printing capacity can be compared to the amount that is usually done in a week. About 10,000 sheets of paper were used.
“Students definitely took advantage of the free printing. The numbers alone show that. It was about what we expected,” IMT Director Tom Kjeldgaard said.
IMT has been exploring options for a new contract since July. The old contract expired in September, which began the search for a replacement. After the six-month process, the final decision was Pharros as the new software provider and Intelli-tech as the hardware provider.
“The selection process was the most challenging part. We had three bidders, allowing the old vendor to try out as courtesy,” Birch said. “The implementation of this system has been smoother than any others.”
The criteria that IMT looked at for the decision included price, student input and support service. The office already has a relationship with Intelli-tech so they knew they could rely on the service. It is more convenient than the old provider because Intelli-tech is based locally in San Dimas.
“We know what they are capable of. They have proven they can be here in 15 minutes,” Birch said. “They are a partner with us in providing the service and we are happy customers.”
IMT has a support desk in the library to help students with any questions about the system.
“We try to accommodate and help students as much as possible. Once everybody understands how it works, it will be a good change,” Librarian Dena Simpson said.
Kjeldgaard warns students that once they click the print button they agree to pay for it. There are no refunds and they are stuck with what they print.
