Digital Service Bureau for Learning Access and Use Policy

•   The DSB is a hands-on learning environment in which users sit at the computer stations and print and scan their own projects. We have Epson 9800/9900 printers (with printing up to 44 in. wide) and 4800/4880/4900 printers (with printing up to 17 in. wide), two Nikon 9000 film scanners, and one Epson V700 flatbed scanner and one Epson 1640XL over sized scanner. Two paper media are available for use on the designated digital photo printers: Epson Enhanced Matt Paper and Epson Premium Luster Photo Paper. Students may bring in their own paper, but can only use coated media on the photo printers. There are two experimental printers, one 9800, one 4800, where students are able to use non-coated photo papers to experiment on.

•    The DSB is not a general computer-use room; please prepare your files offsite.

•    The DSB is monitored by the DSB supervisors during all open hours; there is no access outside of regularly scheduled hours. The supervisors are on hand to assist users with scanning, printing, handing out and loading paper (if needed), and other aspects of the digital workflow. However, users must already understand how to prepare digital files for printing (we do not teach Photoshop or how to prepare files for printing).

•    Presently access to the DSB is restricted to students, staff, and faculty affiliated with the Department of Art. and University of Minnesota.

•   Before you are allowed to print in the DSB you must be enrolled in a digital art class, have attended a training session (recommended) or have signed the DSB Training Contract (please look for an additional blog post containing this contract) and gone over the printing directions briefly with the DSB attendant.

•    Students currently enrolled in digital art classes and paying a digital course fee have automatic access, once their instructors sends the DSB the student class list. Everyone else - e.g. students taking independent studies or BFA/MFA credits in non-digital areas, working on Senior Projects from non-digital areas, faculty and instructors from non-digital areas, and staff - must take the tech demo and/or have signed the Training Contract. 

•    All prints must be tracked and paid for prior to leaving the DSB. For students currently enrolled in digital classes we use a course-fee system. Enrolled students receive a credit for up to so many digital prints for the course fee they pay, which is tracked in an Excel spreadsheet database based on current class lists. Instructors MUST forward their class list to the lead DSB technician, Caroline Houdek at dsb@umn.edu, before their students are allowed to print using their fees. After an enrolled student uses his or her course-fee allotment, they are able to make additional prints, paying for prints as they go. Unused credit is not refunded but is used to pay for test strips, maintenance tanks, and other general expenses of the DSB.

•    For students, staff, and faculty who are not enrolled in an art class they pay as they go. Payment is either made using cash or check paid at the equipment Cage W139 or using Gopher Gold. Note, students must first ad money to their card before they can use it in the DSB. Click here for locations where money can be added to the Gopher Gold Card. 

 

•   Payment must be made before prints leave the DSB; no tabs are carried. The DSB is not responsible for prints left behind to be paid for later, but users will still need to pay for any damaged prints. Students cannot print using other students course fees.

•    Priority during the last 2 weeks: During the last two weeks of the semester each student is only allowed to make up to one 1-hour reservation per day for the 4800 printers OR one 2-hour reservation per day for the 9800 mural printers. Also students, staff, and faculty who are not enrolled in a digital class should not plan on printing during these weeks. The DSB receives a higher-than-normal volume of users during this time. All students in classes have priority.


•    Unused course-fee print credits: There are no refunds for unused portions of student credits, the remainder stays in general DSB account. Students do not all print the same amounts for each assignment or project. This means that some students will not exhaust their full course-fee print credit: the DSB depends on the unused portions to help pay for maintenance tanks, Kraft paper, unexpected repairs, etc. We recognize that it may seem unfair, but it is similar to what happens in all other art courses; all students pay the same exact materials fee, but they each use less or more amounts of materials.

•    No food or drink is allowed in the DSB.

•    Failure to follow these policies will result in losing DSB privileges.