[26976] in resnet
Re: Pay for printing in labs
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Barber, Matt)
Fri Oct 28 11:31:58 2011
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Message-ID: <C341C07FB9D49343842DE8D8B70F4ECB243DB4E05B@MAIL1.csntprod.morrisville.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:24:23 -0400
Reply-To: Resnet Forum <RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu>
From: "Barber, Matt" <barbermj@morrisville.edu>
To: RESNET-L@listserv.nd.edu
In-Reply-To: <4EA97838.2030603@calfrye.com>
Hi all,
Great discussion so far. We aren't too interested in charging students, but collecting more detailed data seems like a good idea.
Has anyone used the free monitoring tool that PaperCut offers? http://www.papercut.com/products/free_software/print_logger/
I am curious to try it out and see some statistics, but am wondering how something like works at scale.
Thanks!
Matt Barber ‘07
Network and Systems Manager
Morrisville State College
315-684-6053
-----Original Message-----
From: Resnet Forum [mailto:RESNET-L@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Cal Frye
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 11:27 AM
To: RESNET-L@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: Pay for printing in labs
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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