Ch-ch-ch-changes (Printing! Software!)

Spring means new beginnings, and at the UGL we’re beginning to use some new technology: over spring break we began updating the public PCs to Windows 7 operating system (this will continue until all the public PCs use Windows 7). We also updated our printing software to make things run more smoothly and easily for you!

The print release station is a computer monitor between the printers.

The neat-o new Print Release Station

Here’s some important stuff you should know about the changes we’ve made:

1) The old printing software, LibPrint, has been replaced with the new and improved PaperCut!  If you live in a residence hall and/or have used a res hall computer lab (or have worked in a couple of other labs on campus that already use this system) you are familiar with PaperCut. If not, here’s a quick introduction!

PaperCut is a bit different from LibPrint, but also pretty similar. The biggest change is that you don’t get charged for any print jobs until you release them from the Print Release Station, located by the printers on the upper level. That means that you won’t constantly wonder if you got unfairly charged for a print job that did not print, or didn’t print properly.

You still have the option to pay cash or charge to your student account, but now you have to select that option when you select which printer you want. To charge a print job to your student account, choose UGL B&W on libprintserv1 for black and white print jobs and UGL Color Log in to pay (30 cents per page) on libprintserv1 for color. If you want to pay cash for your print jobs, choose UGL B&W pay at Circ Desk (10 cents per page) on libprintserv1 for black and white, and UGL Color Pay at Circ Desk (30 cents per page) on libprintserv1 for color.

Whenever you print in color, you will get a pop-up dialog box asking you to confirm your selection. This is to help remind you that color costs more, and to keep you from wasting money on color printing when you really just need black and white.

When you open a document and click print, you’ll be given the above choices. You should then get  a pop-up notification asking you to log in (if you’re paying with your student account) and then a notification that your job has been sent to the print queue. The green PaperCut icon should always be in the top right corner of the desktop and will briefly display your total charge.

To release your print job, go to the Print Release Station by the printers at the front of the upper level of the UGL and log in with your Net ID and password. If your job is not there, head back to your computer and click on “Details” in the green PaperCut icon on the desktop so you can log in again and then re-print your job. Again, you don’t get charged until something prints!

You don’t need to close or log out of PaperCut when you’re done. It is programmed to not remember your login information after you send a job to the printer.

2) Some of the public PCs on the upper level of the library are being upgraded to Windows 7. And some of these–the ones that don’t have the hard drives under the monitors–have different software set ups than you’re used to: basically the ones that don’t have hard drives under them (called “thin clients” in IT lingo — they look just like the computer above in the “Print Release Station” photo) don’t run any Abobe software. So if you need to use Photoshop or another Adobe product, find a public computer that DOES have a hard drive sitting under the monitor.

We will be working on updating documentation on the UGL website about these and other technology upgrades. 

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions about the new technology at the UGL, stop by the circulation or research desk to ask! You can always Ask-A-Librarian, too.

 

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