Courtesy Card Courtesy
Below Margaret writes that Uniprint is now enabled for the front desk computers instead of the dinosaur printers, and that student workers will use Courtesy Cards to print off patron receipts. These are in an envelope pinned to the wall by the Charlie computer. Other uses for Courtesy Cards include when a printing or scanning error causes an unreasonably bad copy or when users display an appreciable amount of stress about needing to make a copy but lacking funds. If reimbursing a patron for one or two copies, take a card with you and print them for the user, retaining the card. If you know they lost a certain amount, you can also just give them a card (a full card has 75 cents on it--reimburse them extra if needed, it doesn't have to be exact). If giving freebies, generally only allow one or two (not mulitple) copies, unless the patron is particularly convincing. Courtesy cards are just that--given as a courtesy, so it's okay to be liberal in their use.
And now for Courtesy Card Courtesy!
Little is more aggravating for either an employee or a patron to have to feed multiple cards into a photocopier or the UniPrint box because someone put an empty or low value card back in the sleeve. Patrons who need the cards have likely already encountered some frustration to need a card in the first place, and further needless delay doesn't help.
Whenever you use a Courtesy Card: when finished, record the remaining amount on the card itself with a marker, crossing off a previous amount if necessary. A black marker is in the sleeve for this purpose. If a card is empty or has a useless value, you can return the card to the Copy Center (value cannot be added to the Courtesy Cards at a cash-to-card machine).
As a reminder:
Photocopies: $0.17 (starts August 1)
Computer printouts: $0.10
Microfilm scans: $0.25
Thus, if a card has less than 10 cents, it can be returned to the Copy Center.
PS--I made that Courtesy Card in Paint. I got lazy.