the guest pass looks like an ancient scroll...

Sometimes when you print a guest pass you will see a bunch of foreign characters and symbols print out too.  The guest pass number is on there somewhere amid the random characters (I promise).  To make sure it doesn't happen again, you'll need to log out of Citrix (Start >  Log Off [username]) and then log back in. 

issuing guest passes when computers are down

The servers were down this past Monday which meant that none of our staff (with the exception of circ) could sign on to the computer.  Our labs were fully functioning, though, which created a problem.  We had people wanting to get guest passes and no way to issue them.  We did find a creative solution, which I'd like to share with you guys in case it happens again:

• There are three "dummy" cards in the top drawer of my (April's) desk that we used to sign on guests who needed to print (they needed a number associated with them to release print jobs)
• We signed on non-printing guests by overriding the PC Res on the computers.  To do this, you hold down the Ctrl key and click the computer icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.  In the bottom-center of the screen, you will be prompted to enter the override password (same as Print Release and Circ override codes).  Then you will confirm that you are logging on as a super user. 
• Super users do not have a time limit, so we recorded the patron's name, computer number, and the time we signed them on on the guest pass log.

Hopefully this won't happen again, but I don't think any of us are naive enough to believe that it won't!  :)

computer lab staff computer back-up

EXTREME COMPUTER LAB COMPUTER ISSUE EMERGENCY PLAN…

We found out from IS today that if the computer lab staff computer freezes and you’re dead in the water with no hope in sight, you can log on to another computer at the reference desk using the computer name.  This will gain you access to all of the programs on that computer including PC Res and LPT-One Print Release.  It’s inconvenient, but at least it’s a back-up plan so that we’re not completely unable to release print jobs and issue guest passes.