Wellesley College’s Library and Technology Services (LTS) made changes in the school’s printing system and printers, implemented a test course browser, installed 44 new wireless access points in Wellesley’s residence halls and added additional speeds to course Kaltura videos this summer. LTS Deputy Chief Information Officer Veronica Brandstrader summarized these August changes in a College Announcement released to the Wellesley community this semester.

The announcement noted that although black and white printing is still free at Wellesley with an initial PaperCut quota of 1,000 pages with free increases through the Computing Help Desk, the cost of a page of color printing increased from 20 cents to 40 cents this semester to cover LTS’ increase in color printing costs due to the cost of toner for the new printers. Students who wish to print color pages should go to the Science and Clapp Libraries’ service desks and pay the fee with cash, check or library record charge.

The Community, Community-Lab and Community-Cloud printers are no longer being used and have been replaced by tall beige Hewlett-Packard (HP) printers that use PaperCut, PaperCut Lab and PaperCut Cloud. Before the bulkier multipurpose printers were installed a few years ago in response to student feedback, Wellesley had relied on HP printers.

Last year’s squatter printers are only being used for copying and scanning PDFs this year; the HP printers only have printing. Copied pages are still withdrawn from students’ PaperCut balances Students print by logging into the PC release station near the HP printers and releasing their jobs. Jobs stay in the queue for 12 hours.

Returning students need to install the latest version of PaperCut on their computers and select the PaperCut Cloud option to print. Although there is no supported Android printing currently in place, students can print from the libraries’ computers and Chromeboxes, their own Macs or PCs, or IOS through Google Apps. Students can find more information about printing through the PaperCut page on LTS’ website.

There were a few changes to printers’ locations this year. The Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center no longer has a printer because none of the staff members can come there often enough to maintain one; LTS received a high volume of student complaints last year because the printer was broken for extended periods of time. LTS recognizes the need for a 24/7 printer on West Side and is working with House Presidents to figure out how to fix this problem, LTS Director of Research & Instructional Support Heather Woods said.

Pendleton East 125, which is near the Pendleton Well, now has an HP printer. The Clapp Library has three printers on its main floor and one printer in the Knapp Media and Technology Center. One of the Clapp Library’s Reference Room printers will be moved to the fourth floor of the library and will no longer be available for students. The Science Center has three printers in its library and one 24-hour printer by its elevator lobby. The Art and Music Libraries each release stations.

LTS relied on the results of a (MISO) Measuring Information Service Outcomes Survey it issued to the Wellesley community last semester. MISO is an online survey that colleges and universities across the United States can use to quantitatively assess how campus communities view their library and technological services. The survey examines factors ranging from satisfaction with service to frequency of service use to use of computing and information tools. There will be no MISO survey this year, but students are strongly encouraged to send feedback to LTS Chief Information Officer Ravi Ravishanker.

According to Woods, the MISO survey was administered to a sample size of 700 students; about 60 percent of the group, or around 420 students, responded.

“The top two issues brought up by students were wireless access and printing,” Woods summarized.

Students experiencing internet connection problems should contact the Help Desk to have wireless access points added where necessary. Those seeking printing or other technological help should contact the Computing Help Desk at Clapp Library.

LTS also decided that Clapp Library can no longer be open from 12-2 a.m. on Sundays through Thursdays and will close at midnight on those days.

“LTS would be happy to have Clapp open from 12-2 a.m. on those days, but we don’t have the ability to staff it,” Woods said, adding that 20-30 students had used those hours per night.

Woods explained that the Advisory Committee prohibits the library from being open without a full-time staffer for safety reasons. Because there aren’t enough full-time staffers in the libraries, none of them can have the 24/7 hours many Wellesley students have requested.

Wellesley College’s test course browser has a number of new features. Green circles to the left of each course indicate spots are left; red circles show the class is full. One can now see a class’ locations, times, distribution requirements fulfilled and current enrollment without clicking on the class. Two randomized featured courses are at the top of the page and can be hidden. Students can now share and email classes on a number of platforms, get help, see the old course browser and provide feedback on the Course Browser page. Students can also save courses as favorites before their times and locations are released; when that information is added, a calendar of favorited courses is automatically created.

Before the old course browser was first used about five years ago, students had to view a constantly updated PDF to view their courses. The old course browser that was used until this semester was primarily used for checking whether desired classes were full. Features like filtering by department, keyword and special courses were not often known about or used by students. LTS hopes students will use the new course browser to review course descriptions and save their favorite courses.

Ravishanker said the current test course browser is part of LTS’ attempt to move toward a “responsive design” that can be used on multiple platforms, including a mobile one. To realize this vision, LTS talked to faculty last April and House Presidents and Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential and Campus Life Kris Niendorf before then.

Ravishanker said the names and professors of Spring 2016 courses should be up relatively soon. Class times and locations will be announced at their normal time.

Annabel Thompson ’19 has had a satisfactory experience with the course browser and printing services during her first few weeks at Wellesley College.

“The course browser worked pretty well for me…it was definitely not too overwhelming. I haven’t had any problems with the new printing system, but I’ve heard that Google can be finicky for some people,” Thompson said.

Sabrina Leung ’18 noted that the system seems to be more effectively serving students than its predecessor.

“It does seem more efficient and faster than before because prior to the new printing system, people would use the same machine to print and scan,” Leung said.

Danni Ondraskova ’18 is the News Editor. She is a Russian Area Studies and Economics double major. She is an avid Chicago Blackhawks fan who enjoys her hometown’s deep dish pizza and Indian food. She can be reached at [email protected].