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A revamped public printing system — to be deployed at the start of the term
— is expected to help control waste and improve satisfaction for both students
and print window workers, according to Machine Room Manager Mike Hogan.
For decades, Dartmouth has provided no-cost public printing to anyone who
can connect to the network. However, a system originally designed to crank out
tractor-fed, green-and-white ledger paper is now groaning under current
volumes: six million sheets are printed each year; fully, a third are wasted,
and no one is happy with the process.
It's too easy to skip key steps when sending a print job — if you forget to
select a printer (there are several options — stapled output? color?) or forget
to identify your job, you may never find it when it prints. In a hurry? There's
no good way to get an accurate estimate on how long it will take for the job to
be printed and sorted. Many students assume that their job prints as soon as
it's submitted, but it doesn't. As a result, frustrations run high on both
sides of the print window, Hogan said.
Then there's the waste — two million pages and climbing. Seventeen percent
of all wasted pages are discarded banner pages, a cover sheet that identifies
who sent the print job. The remainder of the recycled papers are jobs left
unclaimed for more than 48 hours.
Computing Services has been talking with student assembly representatives
and others around campus during the past two years, evaluating different
options for printing services. The new system is modeled on a successful revamp
at Princeton, where both students and administrators faced similar problems and
are now apparently much happier.
Here's how it works. When you submit a job to the public printers, there
will be only one queue, called GreenPrint, to choose from. A pop-up window
appears, asking for a user name and password (both can be arbitrary, at least
for now). The print job is stored centrally on the network, until the user
turns up at a printer Release Station (to be located in Berry Library, Collis,
and possibly in the dorms).
The printer Release Station consists of a Windows computer and a high-speed
Xerox printer. You stand at the computer, select your print job from the list,
and enter your password. Bingo, your print job is delivered on the spot.
This way, Hogan said, no jobs will be printed unless the owner is standing
right next to the printer. And if you forget about a job, or submit a job by
mistake, the job will not be printed.
Computing Services has been testing the system for the past six months, and
is preparing to roll it out during the start of spring term. One key
determinant of success will be having enough release stations, Hogan said -
there will be at least eight in Berry, for example.
The other factor involves educating the student body. Hogan is counting on a
lot of help from students, and probably won't be disappointed. To distribute
the required Mac/PC client software, student assembly representatives and
others were planning to prowl the dorms with CDs in hand, offering to set up
and troubleshoot systems for any who ask.
"People are getting excited about the changes," Hogan said.
"The print window operators have been discussing the new system with
students, and the response has been really positive."
Factoid: The average public print job is six pages long.
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