[26970] in resnet
Re: Pay for printing in labs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Cal Frye)
Thu Oct 27 11:28:29 2011
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Message-ID: <4EA97838.2030603@calfrye.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:26:48 -0400
Reply-To: Resnet Forum <RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu>
From: Cal Frye <cjf@calfrye.com>
To: RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu
In-Reply-To: <913704494.302393.1319727646222.JavaMail.root@vmailbox4.svsu.edu>
On 10/27/11 11:00 AM, Mike Holliday wrote:
> Many years ago, we sought to manage print volume (reducing waste) and
> found the analysis revealed a definite need to regulate it. The
> statistics showed that 85% of the users printed less than 400 pages, and
> those in that other 15% - they accounted for nearly 54% of the overall
> volume. We found many students were printing upwards of 2000-4000 pages
> per semester, with no print management in place - not to mention the
> amount of paper ending up in recycling bins.
If my memory serves correctly, we also saw a serious reduction in print
jobs going directly from the output tray into the recycling bins after
instituting fees. We had issued a free print quota previously, but this
didn't really have teeth, so also lacked impact. We, too, grant an
initial print allotment equal to about 90% of the typical use.
Two observations:
The print shop and general copier use increased after instituting
printing fees. Prior to the fees, student organizations printed flyers,
etc. on student free printing instead of using duplicating services.
Fees have served to direct these high-volume jobs to the equipment
geared for it and removed such big jobs from the lab printers.
If you meter printing, you're going to have to deal with complaints of
paper jams or unreadable output, and will need to be able to issue
refunds easily, or you'll just swap one burden for another.
We had used pCounter, then switched to Pharos several years ago. In our
environment, Pharos counts a job as it is released to the printer, while
pCounter used to count the job as the printer produced the pages. We
seem to have more refunds due to jams with Pharos due to this change in
accounting. Your mileage may well vary, and I'm not familiar with
pCounter in its current implementation.
--
Best regards
-- Cal Frye, Network Administrator, Oberlin College
Mudd Library, x.56930 -- CIT will NEVER ask you for your password!
www.calfrye.com, www.oberlin.edu/cit/
"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence." -- David Hume.
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