Happy Valentines’ Day! We hope you’re celebrating all the love in your life in all its different forms. Our Social Media team is going rogue this week to celebrate, and invites you to choose one of our fantastic iSchool printers as the object of your affections. Who do you choose? What printer in the iSchool is your go-to?
Do you need to reserve a room in the iSchool for a meeting, interview, or other event? Go to go.ischool.illinois.edu/roomrequest, or scan the QR code above, to access our reservation form and schedule one! Reservations should be made at least one business day in advance, and the form will prompt you to add the following information:
To learn more, check out our room reservation guide.
Zoom’s latest update caught many people by surprise when it began right as they were trying to join a class or meeting. Zoom does not send reminders about new updates, so it’s good to get in the practice of checking for updates so you aren’t caught unawares. Let’s go over how to check Zoom for updates.
To check Zoom for updates, open the application on your computer. Once Zoom is open, click on your profile picture in the top right corner.
Scroll down the pop-up menu that appears underneath your profile picture. Find and select the option “Check for Updates”.
If Zoom has an update available, it will prompt you to begin the update process. If it does not have an update available, you will receive a pop-up saying “You are up to date”.
And that’s it! The Help Desk recommends checking Zoom for new updates right at the beginning of each semester so you will be ready for meetings, online courses, and other online events.
Have you ever needed to print something and not known where to do it? Never fear! The iSchool has some printers that you can use!
We recommend using the public printers in both iSchool buildings. To learn more about the public printers and where they live, check out this Knowledge Base page.
Old iSchool Building (501 E. Daniel St.)
New iSchool Building (614 E. Daniel St.)
iSchool Masters and CAS students have $21 in printing credit per semester, and this quota may only be used on the iSchool printers. You must be currently enrolled in an iSchool course to use this budget. School faculty, staff, and PhD students are not charged for printing, although it is tracked. Both black and white and color printing cost $0.10/page. Color printing is available on Optimus (located on the 2nd floor near the Help Desk in the 501 E. Daniel St. iSchool building) as well as Luna (located on the 4th floor near the Help Desk of the 614 E. Daniel St. iSchool building).
Please note, unused printing quotas do not carry over from semester to semester. Check your printing balance on the Illinois Papercut page. Additional printing quota can be purchased on the IlliniCash website.
Undergraduate iSchool students (BSIS or BSIS+DS as their primary major) have access to printers across campus, including the ones in the iSchool. There is a printing quota of $10 per semester for fall and spring that is available for use with iSchool printers. Black and white printing and color printing cost $0.10/page until you use up your $10 quota. After you use up that $10, printing costs $0.40/page.
Please note, unused printing quotas do not carry over from semester to semester. Check your printing balance on the Illinois Papercut page. Additional printing quota can be purchased on the IlliniCash website.
Though we do have self-service kiosks where you can log in and print from (Chip and Optimus in 501 E. Daniel St. and Luna in 614 E. Daniel St.), you also have the option to connect your computer to the printers to be able to print directly from your computer when you are in the building. Instructions for how to install the printers on Mac are here and PC are here! Always feel free to drop by the Help Desk if you need assistance with installing printers or have any other questions!
For more tips and guidance on printing, including troubleshooting, copying, and printing with staples, visit our page on iSchool Connect or check out the iSchool Knowledge Base.
Welcome new (and returning) students! We’re happy to have you on campus, and we hope you’re well rested and prepared for the semester. As you prepare for classes and settle in for the semester, you may need tech support to help set up accounts or manage computer settings, to borrow a piece of equipment, or you might just need a piece of candy. That’s what we’re here to help you with!
The Help Desk provides tech support for the iSchool community. You’ll probably see us show up at the beginning of an in-person or online course to offer tech support to your professors! You can also find us on the 4th floor of the new iSchool building at 614 E. Daniels St if you ever need in-person support (we also always have bowls of candy, if you just want a snack). In addition, we also loan out technology like computers, chargers, keyboards and mice to iSchool students, staff, and faculty.
Lastly, if you aren’t able to meet us in person, never fear! You can email us at ischool-support@illinois.edu, call us at 217-244-4903 or 800-377-1892, or message us using TechChat. We’re extremely friendly and would love to help you however we can.
One last time: welcome, new students! We’re excited to have you here.
As you work on finals, you may need to write citations and create a bibliography for various final projects and essays. Never fear! ZoteroBib is a free to access, ad-free bibliography generator that you can use without creating an account or installing any software. If you need to quickly create a short bibliography for a project, this is the tool for you.
ZoteroBib is pretty simple to use. You can either enter a URL, ISBN, DOI, title, or other identifier into the search bar, or you can click “Manual entry” and fill out the related fields. (The Help Desk recommends using an ISBN, DOI, or other unique identifier over entering a title or URL – ISBNs and DOIs tend to work more reliably than the latter). Click “Cite” when you’re ready, and ZoteroBib will quickly generate a citation and start creating a bibliography. This bibliography will save to your browser’s local storage, so you can exit ZoteroBib and come back to add more to the bibliography whenever.
Additionally, ZoteroBib supports over 10,000 citation styles, and you can easily pick the one you need from the dropdown menu in the bibliography section. Once you have all your citations, you can either copy the bibliography to your clipboard so you can copy/paste it into your project, or you can download it in a variety of formats.
You can learn more about ZoteroBib at https://zbib.org/faq. Try it out for yourself at https://zbib.org/. Good luck on finals everyone!
Welcome back after break! We’re near the end of the semester, and finals are ramping up. Never fear: the Help Desk has a variety of tips and tricks to help you get through the next few weeks.
First, the Help Desk has a wide variety of equipment to loan out to iSchool students, staff, and faculty, from computers and chargers to white noise machines, ring lights, chrome casts, and more. Stop by and borrow a white noise machine to get the added rest you need for finals, or borrow a Chromecast for some well-needed distraction and rest.
Is your phone a constant distraction while you’re studying? Flora is a free-to-use app that helps you create a to-do list and block distracting apps, and it’s a great way to get away from your phone for a bit so you can focus on completing your work.
If you’re the kind of person who needs background noise while you’re studying, try listening to lo-fi music or study videos to help put yourself in the right headspace to work. Lofi Girl on Youtube is a popular channel for study videos, but other Help Desk favorites include this video of ambient music in a bookstore setting.
Lastly, the Pomodoro technique is a way to manage your time while studying while also making sure you give yourself well-needed breaks. There are many free Pomodoro timers available online, like Tomato Timers and Pomofocus.
That’s it for now! Good luck on finals (and make sure to rest and drink plenty of water)!
Great news from the Help Desk! We now have a new, fast and easy way to install printers on both Macbooks and Windows. To learn more, go to answers.uillinois.edu/ischool/129440 to learn how to add printers on Windows, OR go to answers.uillinois.edu/ischool/129422 to add printers on Macbooks. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at ischool-support@illinois.edu, or visit us in-person for help.
Course registration has started! As you register, you might want to take a course for more or less credits, but not know how to change them. Luckily, the registrar has a page on how to change credits. Access it at go.illinois.edu/credithours. If you need additional help, you can also reach out to the Help Desk at ischool-support@illinois.edu, or stop by in-person! Our GAs are always happy to help.
Do you need to reserve a room in the iSchool for a meeting, interview, or other event? Go to go.ischool.illinois.edu/roomrequest, or scan the QR code above, to access our reservation form and schedule one! Reservations should be made at least one business day in advance, and the form will prompt you to add the following information:
To learn more, check out our room reservation guide.