How do you maintain your public computers?
Librarians want to know.
Librarians want to know.
Here at MaintainIT, we hear similar stories from a host of libraries, and many times the size of the library doesn't make a lick of a difference. That was the case when Thomas Edelblute, from the Anaheim Public Library shared how tech support personnel located at the central library are contacted at a higher rate for issues at the headquarters than at the branches for the same issue. He shared:
"My general perception is that some of these differences are location specific. The branches are more willing to troubleshoot things themselves because my team is stationed here at the central library and are not quite as immediately accessible, so for some of the hardware problems like something stuck in a floppy drive, they will get out a paperclip or something and try to fish it out themselves, whereas somebody here at the central library, they are more likely to call us for that same problem."
One techie at a rural library mused that the branch librarians didn't want to bother him, even though he was happy to oblige. This same story was repeated at several smaller libraries, which begs a question: why is this happening? Is it simply a factor of autonomy? Is it guilt around the distance someone based at the central library must travel?
If you have a similar situation at your library, what are you doing to fix it? At Thomas' library, he is training staff on troubleshooting. What do you do?
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Training on Troubleshooting
I'm beginning a program that pulls one interested person from each department into a short training session on basic troubleshooting techniques. These people will be the "front-line" tech people for their department, so casual questions about what's gone wrong with a computer or printer will go to them first. If they can't get the problem taken care of, they'll escalate this to the IT department and we'll deal with it at that point. This year, these fine volunteers are getting donuts at training sessions, but next year, they'll get a small bump in their hourly wage to show our appreciation for their willingness to answer questions and be "johnny on the spot" for our woefully understaffed IT department.
donuts!
Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, Robin. You put your finger on something intriguing: "casual questions." I wonder if increasing knowledge around casual questions will not only help with basic troubleshooting, but also lead to increased confidence around more complex issues.
I love the evolution from donuts to a pay increases and look forward to hearing how this program changes over time!