Folks,
As the demise of the 2nd floor computer help desk was official as of last week, here's an overview of what to expect as the semester starts up in a couple of weeks:
Staffing:
We will have students available for the majority of the day. They will be housed in 203A, and can be reached at 4-5989. Others who will be available will be Chacko 4-9921 (Room 281), Peter (6-4185), and sometimes Steve
(4-9921). We will put out a schedule of who to contact first, but generally the student/server room number will be the initial contact point. Pagers may be an option in the future, but because of poor signal availability at times
we're going a more direct contact method and measure the results. I'm sure you'll let us know if we're not responding quickly enough, but we'd like to get to you in five minutes or less, unless otherwise occupied. We expect to have two students as part of the IT support staff, in addition to the usual FTE suspects. They will also be helping with staff IT support, so we'll juggle priorities and communicate accordingly.
If not an urgent support issue, you can always use the help desk ticketing system, or please leave a voice-mail and we will get back to you soon.
Class/Patron Support:
There are no real changes. When classes are scheduled in the pit, we will still do the prep and clear out the patrons 15-30 minutes before the scheduled start. We will also make sure the Ovid training mode will be turned on as well when necessary. Also as before, if patrons need assistance, we'll be there.
Public computing requests/management:
Hopefully very soon, we will be rolling out a more automated way of imaging/updating our computers. This potentially means having the ability to add individual programs as well as entire computer images via the network. We have been considering restarting some sort of version of the PAC to stimulate input and ideas, but we'll leave that discussion for a later time.
The bottom line is other than location, not THAT much has changed. IT staff will generally be available throughout the day. However this IS a pilot, so feel free to grace my doorway and tell me what you like and don't like...about the pilot, I mean. My quirks are off-limits, I'm afraid.
Schedule up until Labor Day:
Chacko 4-9921 (Room 281 - 8:15 - 4:30 pm)
Matt 4-5989 (Server Room - 10 am to 4:30 pm)
Peter 6-4185
We'll come out with a schedule for the semester soon.
Thanks,
Peter