Making printing services easier with new integrated system, Pay for Print

As we move towards a seamless and integrated technology society, services such as printing would need to stay current and up-to-date. Moving from its old Pay for Print service, which requires students to obtain a separate copy card for each UBC printing service (individual units and groups had its own printing system), the new Pay for Print service is integrated with the UBC Card, which offers the UBC community a consistent printing environment at all Pay for Print locations allowing students to use the service the same way regardless of which campus they attend. Operations and fund management will also be consistent at all locations using the UBC card eCommerce system, a system that already manages electronic payments at UBC.

The Pay for Print project provided significant business value to UBC Library. "Implementing Pay for Print had a number of benefits to our library users and the Library," says Jean Paul Eidsvik, Finance Director for Library. "The current system is far more secure for library users than the old one and it’s part of an integrated system where students can use their existing UBC Card for additional services."

Students are also able to use their UBC Card at printing stations at multiple locations, including Arts, and Student Housing and Hospitality Services with the possibility of additional stations to be added in the future. For Library, the overhead of maintaining outdated change and card kiosks was reduced from 10 to one and the daily cash management function has been eliminated, allowing staff to be focused on other priorities.

With the scale of the project, a tight timeline and a not-yet-matured service, there were some challenges that the team encountered. This included major hardware issues with printer device compatibility with packaged software and data formats within course reserves material. The other challenge was the change management of the UBC Card service and the elimination of Library print cards. These challenges have become important lessons for future projects and rollouts.

Overall, this project has been viewed as a success as it was the first key partnership project between UBC Library and IT. Issues and incidents were also handled tactfully and promptly through coordinated efforts of Library stakeholders, Library Communications team, and the UBC IT team. The partnership also enhanced the working relationship among IT groups and vendors through frequent communication and resolving issues together on-site. The next phase of this project includes adding features such as scan to USB and other library specific features.

The project team currently includes:

• Aaron Ng
• Aarti Paul
• All Head Librarians
• Andrea Coutts
• Brittany Marcoux
• Chris Yong
• Darko Separovic
• Eric Lai
• Fe Lubigan
• Frances Verzosa
• Gerry Gainford
• Heman Choi
• Irek Grygorczuk
• Jim Tuckett
• Jonathan Baynes
• JP Eidsvik
• Julie Mitchell
• Laleh Mosadegh
• Laszlo Hollander
• Library branch designated Train the Trainers
• Linda Ong
• Manny Suhr
• Mats Hagbjork
• Nick Zhang
• Rex Chang
• Sean Lee
• Syed Hassan
• Tracey Douglas