Student Print Accounts
At our library, our circulation staff are dealing with continuously adding money to students print accounts. This has become very time-consuming, and we were wondering what other libraries do.
We are hoping for a system that will free circulation staff from this task so that they can focus on those patrons who have library-related needs.
Thank you for your input!
- Renee Morrissey's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Comments
At Medicine Hat College
At Medicine Hat College Library, we are offering students 250 free pages per academic year to start with their printing accounts. And based on the stats done by the Computer Services, only 12% of students had actually exceeded their quotas and had to buy more. We don't have any complaints or comments from our circulation staff about adding on credits to the printing accounts.
At Mount Royal College
At Mount Royal College, we began using a PCounter system this year. Students are assigned a printing account, associated with their student id/computer log-on. They can add money to this account at designated stations on campus, including one in the library (consisting of a dedicated computer they log onto and a coin/bill machine for adding the $$).
When a student wants to print, he/she logs onto a college computer using her username and password, sends the document to print, and the payment is automatically deducted from her Pcounter account. If there isn't enough $$ to print the entire job, it doesn't go through.
This system was implemented campus wide for printing, rather than being a library solution. So far, it has been better, I think, than our previous system which involved an e-purse and a card swipe at the printers, and was subject to much technical failure, and regularly knocked out our printers.
Good luck,
Alice Swabey Coordinator, Access Services: Circulation & Reserves Mount Royal College Library aswabey@mtroyal.ca 403.440.7241
Student Print accounts
At GPRC we are just in the process of developing a print account system and were concerned about the demand on circulation staff re: adding money to student accounts.
One thing we are considering is a minimum amount that students can purchase. Another option our computing department is exploring is allowing students to add money to their accounts using a credit card. We have not implemented anything yet but I will post something to the blog when we do.
Ann Gish