Fast Printing Service Relieves Heavy Print Load
The Computing Services Centre (CSC) announced the new fast printing service as a supplement to the existing quota-based printing service to all students on Jan 31 2007 (Ref.: Network Computing Issue 51 - March 2007). As expected, this service was well received by students. The following table depicts the usage summary up to the end of May, covering mainly Semester B:
|
Black & White |
Colour |
Total |
|
| Jobs Submitted |
3,371 |
5,247 |
8,618 |
| Pages Printed |
20,417 |
15,206 |
35,623 |
| Distinct Users |
509 |
1,423 |
1,592* |
*340 Users print both
Although the printing management system enables flexible printing upon request at the Release Station, users were always in a hurry and they tended to release their print jobs almost immediately. With the Semester B just passed, the longest recorded elapse time (between submission and release of a print job) was only 12 minutes!
When the service was launched, one set of printer and release station was placed near the Service Counter. As demand increased towards the end of Semester B, we installed another set outside the Hard Copy Service to shorten waiting time by having two printers running in parallel. With these printers designed for heavy duty fast printing, it can serve high volume printing in a large scale really well.
To enhance our fast printing service further, we have made it accessible from all wireless notebooks in the Notebook Loan Service scheme and those that have been registered with the CSC. Users can submit their print jobs to any fast printer through these wireless notebooks anywhere on campus. Information on installing the printer driver and accessing the print queues can be found at the following website:
http://www.cityu.edu.hk/csc/install-guide/FastPrintingServiceGuideline_Notebook.htm
As can be seen, this service is a great success. In fact, the Library is also planning to include fast printing service in their phase one renovation work which is due to complete some time in October 2007.