Yesterday, I was irritated by the fact that both 242 & 242k printers were supposed to work (green signs), so I sent my document to 242k (default), went to the print room and saw a guy in front of me who’s document has just caused a network problem (error 33 I believe) on the 242k printer. I wish I would have sent it to 242 instead (or both) because as a result of the malfunctioning printer, I had to make one more trip back to a carrel and back to the print room.
I wrote on the poster that we should have an option (in print release stations) to manually change the output printer on demand. That would be handy especially in cases of 242k or 242 not working and the other printer working. The green/red signs are great but they cannot be updated realtime. Thence from now on, I do not trust them until I see a printer working on my own.
Anyways, so today I see that somebody wrote a comment “Amazing Idea” next to my original post. I wonder if it was a staff member (and so we might actually see an improvement in possibilities of our print-release software) or it was another student standing behind the idea. In the later case of two, I would like to speak up hoping that a qualified staff member will provide a feedback.
Thanks, Erik Fendik (student & Wilson Media Lab Tutor, LIS)
Hi Erik,
Thanks for your suggestion. We’ll check to see if this might be possible. We might not be able to answer immediately, but we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Stay tuned,
Carrie
Hi again Erik,
I’m happy to tell you that this will be possible. In fact, the Kyocera printer that was purchased for LIB242 was selected because it would allow jobs to be moved from one printer to another.
This option will be available for the two Kyocera printers on the main level once the HelpDesk has time to test, configure and prepare staff and researchers for the new setup.
This option will be available on other printers after their leases expire and we switch them out for similar Kyocera models. The functionality requires machines that can utilize the same print driver.
Best,
Carrie
Great to hear that!
Cool. But how?
Daniel,
I’m not sure if it’s possible yet. I’ve just asked the HelpDesk. We’ll write again when we know more.
HelpDesk says: We don’t have a particular target date for when users are going to be able to switch their print jobs to different printers at will. This is a task we’re in the process of working on, but a number of complications would make any deadline arbitrary at this point.