Tag Archives: Loaner Equipment

Importance of Wrapping Mac Charger Cords

This is a reminder to our veteran circ student employee staff members, and it will be news to our incoming circ desk students.

We need to wrap all of the Mac chargers with a loop at the top so there is no tension on the smaller cord. They are expensive to replace, and wrapping them without the loop will wear them down quickly, and then they are off to the electronic recycle bin. There is a poster on top of the Mac computer case which shows the way it is done.

If you have down time during your shifts, you can check the charger bins to ensure they are wrapped correctly.

Thank you, and welcome back to the circ desk!   We hope your summers were full of adventure!

 

 

New Zoom Audio Recorders in our Inventory

Hi Circ Supervisors!

We just received 5 new audio recorders, which will eventually replace all of the older digital voice recorders. They are in the same drawer as the other recorders. There are only 2 parts to the package we will check out: the recorder with a foam audio buffer, and a USB connector. They actually came with several other parts but Dan and I thought it best that we keep this item simpler. The barcode is on the luggage tag, since that was the only available space for it.

We are getting a few more pieces of equipment, including some graphing calculators. You may have noticed that we now have a third digital Rebel T3i camera too!

I am also adding new Mac chargers, which is really great for the fall semester.

We look to be in good shape for the coming year.

Conference phone confusion

So apparently both of our conference phones ONLY work with an analog phone line. Now luckily, the majority of rooms on campus have analog phone jacks, so this is fine. If someone has trouble with a phone, Telephone Services does have an adapter (DONGLE!) that will make it work with a digital jack. As a result of all of this, we have removed any analog/digital designation on the phones – for all intents and purposes, they are identical.

New Student Laptop Procedure

Since we have a limited amount of student MacBook laptops, (14 at Davis, 3 at Armstrong), and Dell PCs (6 at Davis, 9 at Armstrong), we can no longer allow student borrowers to take them out of the Davis and Armstrong libraries. They have been continually overdue, resulting in zero laptops available for other students to check out. I understand that we did not advertise the fact that laptops could leave the library, but since we allow a 24-hour loan period, we did not restrict them to the building.   We are now restricting them to remain inside the building.

They will each have a sensor attached so they will beep if they pass through the sensing gates.

All student laptops will be confined to the interior perimeters of the libraries, meaning, they are:

NOT ALLOWED TO PASS BEYOND THE LIBRARY EXIT/ENTRANCE GATES of BOTH DAVIS and ARMSTRONG LIBRARIES. That is to say and to include, the Wilson Cafe and the Armstrong kiosk and reading lounge area as off limits. The loan period will remain at 24 hours for Dell PCs and MacBooks.

To be clear, the new rule is:
NO MACBOOK STUDENT LAPTOPS AND DELL PC LAPTOPS ARE ALLOWED OUTSIDE OF THE DAVIS AND ARMSTRONG LIBRARIES – THIS INCLUDES THE WILSON CAFE.

Secondary rule change: There will be a pop-up message (coming soon) to remind anyone checking in returned laptops to open up the machine to check the screen to see if it is broken, and if the machine is off, to please turn it on, then turn it off before placing it in the cart. More often the machines are on, so please turn them off and place in the cart. We are asking this so we are certain the laptops are in good working order upon their return to the Circ Desk.

Please direct any equipment questions to me, and I will gladly assist. You may also make your inquiries to your nearest friendly supervisor or to our fearless leader, Circ Czar Dan Frostman.

Thank you for your attention to these instructions and for your dedication to our policies! Now go our and have a great weekend.

Janine


Circ Upgrade News: New MacBook Air & Dell PC Laptops for Faculty/Staff

       Zach at the Help Desk released the latest batch of laptops for our faculty/staff borrowers on Thursday. So far we have processed (into Millennium) 17 available Dell PC, Model #E6430 laptops.  Additionally, there will be 20 MacBook Airs eventually processed into Millennium.  Armstrong will have theirs to loan out as well.  Since there is not a built-in drive on the MacBook Air models, we have ten “Superdrives” which will be barcoded  separately, and they can be checked out with a laptop (or without).  There is a space on the top shelf of the fac/staff laptop cabinet designated for the Superdrives. We are using the previous laptop cases for the new laptops, but of course the tags and labels have changed. The Middlebury loaner ID numbers are printed on the luggage tags for easy reference. As Dan mentioned in an email, we have a new (and simple) loaner reset process for the Dell PCs, found in the Wiki. Not to be too repetitive, the folder lives in the LIS folder called “clean me,” and instructions are easy and quick:
—      Login to the computer as yourself.
—       Go to C:\LIS and double-click “CleanMe”
—     Accept the UAC prompt (click Yes) to get admin permissions
—    You will see a window that says “Delete inactive profiles on COMPUTER-12345? (Yes/No)”. Type “Y” for yes.
—    The program will delete normal user profiles other than yours, then say “Done. Press any key to continue…”
 —   Press any key to close the window. That’s it!

As for the MacBook Air laptops, we will maintain the same loaner/reset process as we did with the older MacBooks. I have done this and it works well. Keep in mind that you will be using the USB to Ethernet connector, instead of connecting the Ethernet cord directly to the laptop. These will be in the pockets formerly used by the VGA adapters.

All of the Dell and Mac laptops are fully charged and ready for borrowers’ log in. I am checking the laptop cabinet for any of the older laptops which get checked back in during the day so I can replace them with newer models. Feel free to place them on my desk if you think of it (as opposed to placing them inside the metal cabinet).

The older Dell and Mac laptops will be transferred over to the student pool.

Enjoy the new models!  Thank you Zach at the Help Desk, and to all others involved in getting these to Circ! I have a hunch that once the word is out, they will be checked out frequently.

New Equipment Arrives at Circ!

We are pleased to inform supervisors and student staff members that 12 near professional-grade hand-held camcorders (Canon Vixia R42 models) have been added to our inventory, as well as one additional very popular high-performance digital camera, the Canon Rebel T3i. The intent for the hand-held camcorders is to have a uniform supply, which simplifies loan use and instruction. We also have seven new Canon Power Shot Elph 100 cameras and Behringer headphones. There was a particular enthusiastic welcome to a  palm-sized Aaxa Pico LCD player.  Feedback so far on the Pico LCD has been A+, despite its less than perfect technical features to the larger models; it has been checked out since we added it last week, and reports are that DVDs screen just as vividly as on larger projectors.  Naturally, the ease of transporting cannot be over-emphasized.

These items were on our “wish list” back in the Spring, and we are so grateful to have them to loan out. We now have 12 LCDs (10 at Davis and 2 at Armstrong), yet we still had an empty LCD shelf Wednesday night, the last night of break. It was movie night for plenty of students!

The new headphones have also had excellent reviews from the students.

We are trying to keep up with the high demand for Mac chargers each night. Many suffer wire damage with use and others get lost.  I know our most popular items are chargers and headphones.

Please ask questions if any arise about the new equipment. In the meantime, as the saying goes in U.K. applies here at Circ, “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

Thank you to Dan, Petar, Charlie, Mary and Carol for managing these additions. We are so glad to have them to loan out.

New Media Equipment to Circ this Fall

We will be adding several new items to our to our media equipment inventory this fall.

The goal is to standardize most of our cameras and camcorders for our patrons, and to ease the support aspect.

7 additional Canon ELPH 150 digital still cameras (upgrade from the 110 model)
10 (approximately) Vixia hand held camcorders, which will replace the older FS11 line we currently use. (We are keeping our FS 200 models).
We will stay within the XA10 line for the high end camcorder. We have two.

We will receive one palm sized LCD projector. This is a new technology so we will monitor its checkout frequency and performance feedback.
We were unable to add more LCD projectors so we will loan out what we have (8 students, and 5 fac/staff).

One more digital Rebel T3i will be added (yay)!
Tripods
Mac chargers
Headsets
(checking on i-Phone chargers)

No iPads or Kindles. These have tapered off in borrowing. We have 10 to circulate which will be fine.

More news will be coming (via the blog) regarding PC laptop re-imaging procedures.

 

Equipment Review for Fall 2012 Student Circ Staff

Welcome back to our Circulation Student Staff members!

To ease your transition back into the Circ swing of things, this is a quick reminder on the check in procedure for our media equipment items.

No check in required: Do NOT check in most media items. Please place media equipment items on the red cart when they are returned to the Circ Desk; no need for any check-in action on Millennium.  Supervisors will do all of these check ins.

We have two Canon XA10 camcorders in our media collection. These are open to anyone (all patrons including students) for check out for a one-day loan period. DO NOT extend a loan for anyone without checking with a supervisor.
We have added iPads to our collection, and we have 2 Kindles for borrowing; these are two-week loan periods for faculty/staff members only. (One Kindle Fire is available for student circulation, also for 14 days.) NO CHECK IN REQUIRED.

We also have new HD Flash Canon FS200  camcorders; one-day loan periods to all patrons. PLEASE REMEMBER TO AVOID CHECKING IN THESE CAMERAS; SIMPLY CARRY THEM TO THE RED CART.

We have new LCD projectors for students. PLEASE DO NOT CHECK THESE IN; CARRY OVER TO THE RED CART.

There is a VHS player in the media cabinet and we have a DVD recorder for anyone to borrow. No check-in required.

Check in required: Do check in student laptops, power chargers, DVDs (notice and confirm whether the DVD is inside), headphones, digital voice recorders, calculators.  We have new MacBook Pro for Retina Display chargers in the bottom left drawer (#2) next to the student computer nearest the wall clock. The usual MacBook Pro chargers are also in that drawer, as well as in the Mac cabinet. When possible during a quiet period, please turn off the student laptops as they get returned.

If you have any type of question regarding our equipment, please ask me.
Thank you!