Problem with OSAP forms not opening for public computers.

If users complain of not being able to open an OSAP document on the web, please tell them to use Firefox instead of IE.

When they use Firefox they will still need to be observant of a light yellow horizontal bar at the top of the page that appears when trying to access OSAP documents.
Clicking the button on the right hand side of the bar will permit them to choose "allow popup".
Once they do that they should see the small login prompt form the OSAP page. If not, minimize Firefox, because the popup may be behind the Firefox window.

Problems Opening Attachments

User complains of attachments not opening.
Advise the user to try again in Firefox.

There is a known issue with IE and opening attachments from Hotmail and UofT's webmail. Typically this problem will not occur with Yahoo mail or Gmail in IE.

All public PCs in the building have had their annual upgrade from the Information Commons staff.
This happens every year and usually consists of small changes such as upgrades to important Internet plugins like Java, Flash etc.

One of the two most significant changes is an upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, from version 6. However the change is mostly visual and should not cause any confusion. We still have version 6 on our staff machines.

The other change is regarding the computers going into sleep mode.
After 60 minutes the computer goes into sleep mode and can only be brought out of it by pressing the power button once. You cannot use the old way of hitting any key on the keyboard or moving the mouse.

As always...call me for help.

Wireless - User Connection Problems

User complains that their laptop was connecting fine before, but now it is not.
SOLUTION: Delete the existing wireless profile and create it again.
-this problem occurs frequently, and the solution works most of the time
-often misinterpreted as a network problem
-always send the user to Jeff, Dana, or the Information Commons if they need/want help

Our previous policy of not giving out network cables to library users has changed.

We now have 15 cables to loan out and i've placed some in the Loan Services desk cupboard where the keys are, and some in the Information desk cabinet where the supplies are.

We are to take a piece of ID from the user when giving them a cable...just as we do for visitors cards.

If a cable ever gets returned with the plastic connectors at either end broken, we do not expect them to replace it. Return the broken cable to Jeff.

Wireless Reception in Lower Reference

The lower reference room gets 'good' to 'very good' reception.

The group study area further south where Consortium used to be and back to where reference is now stored gets 'low' reception and can even lose a connection.

So it is functional in the lower reference room but not great...and almost useless further south from there.

This will have to be retested when the renovations are complete as wireless antennae above those rooms will be activated at that time.

LIRA Kiosk for Guest Accounts

The LIRA Kiosk located near Printing Station 1 is the new way for people to use our 5 open public computers.
These computers used to have no login at all, but now require the user to go to the Kiosk and obtain a temporary username and password.
Instructions on how to use the Kiosk are at the station.

Anyone with a valid Canadian or U.S. drivers licence, credit card or TCard may use the Kiosk.
Anyone without this ID may obtain a LIRA account from the reference side of the Information Desk.

This temporary account is active until 11pm of the day created. On following days the procedure is the same.

RefWorks "Write-N-Cite" Installation for the Mac.

Any users installing Write-N-Cite on a Mac, first need to download and install a free compression/archive tool called "Stuffit Expander". (similar to WinZip for the PC) Without this tool the user cannot uncompress the Write-N-Cite download, and therefore cannot begin the installation process.

Staff from RefWorks, told us:
Write-N-Cite for the Mac needs to be "unstuffed" using a software called Stuffit
Expander. Stuffit Expander used to come pre-loaded on Macs, but apparently
with the latest Macs, it no longer is on there. Stuffit Expander can be
downloaded for free ( http://www.stuffit.com/mac/expander/ ).

Our cash-to-card and change machines usage of $5 bills.
The signs saying these machines do not accept the new $5 bills have been removed.We've discovered that if the bill is inserted with the shiny stripe 'down' they are accepted.

Some users can't open the login page for hotmail.

This is not a problem with our network or equipment.
It is a problem at Microsoft.

The solution I have hasn't been tested thoroughly but may help you with a user in my absence.
Tell them to try "login.live.com" or "hotmail.com"...and to avoid "http://www.hotmail.com/".

Again...the only thing i'm certain of...is that it is not the fault of our network.


Don't confuse this with the year-old problem we've been having with attachments in hotmail.
The solution for that is to get the user to access hotmail using Firefox instead of IE.