The new FollowMe printer system launched Monday at the James B. Hunt Library and aims to provide students with a more efficient printing experience.
FollowMe Printing is different from other printing systems because of its card swiping technology. Students just swipe their student I.D. at the printer after submitting their print job according to Jim Hansen, assistant director for materials support and WolfCopy.
“Students will no longer have to worry about printing to the wrong printer or picking up the wrong print job,” Hansen said.
The FollowMe printers are not only convenient, but energy efficient as well. Hansen said the free standing, multi-functional printers can print out 55 pages-per-minute after a five-second warm up, and the tabletop models can print out 70 pages-per-minute.
Hansen said the FollowMe Printers will soon be capable of printing from a USB flash drive. This technology will be activated sometime between spring break and summer, according to Hansen.
David Ladrie, assistant director of learning space support, said this new printing system will allow a student to submit their print job online or in a campus computer lab to the FollowMe Printing queue.
New technology doesn’t necessarily mean higher prices. According to Hansen, the price for printing will remain the same at 10 cents a page in the library, and 6 cents elsewhere.
“One of the best features of FollowMe Printing is that the student isn’t charged anything until they swipe their card and select print,” Ladrie said.
Once the print job is in the queue, the student has up to 12 hours to print at any of the FollowMe Printing locations, according to Hansen. If the student doesn’t print within 12 hours then the print job is removed and the student is not charged.
There are currently four multi-functional FollowMe Printers in Hunt Library. In addition, 34 are being installed during spring break and 50 more will be added during the summer on Main and Centennial Campuses, according to Ladrie.
Twenty-six of the printers being installed are free standing, multi-functional printers and the remaining eight will be tabletop models. By the time all 80 printers have been installed before fall semester, 90 percent of student printing will be done with FollowMe Printing, according to Hansen.
Students can print at both N.C. State libraries by choosing either WolfPrint-BlackAndWhite-Libraries or WolfPrint-Color-Libraries. If a student wishes to print at any of the other locations on campus, they can choose WolfPrint in black and white or color, according to Hansen.
If students want to print double-sided, Hansen warns they should select that option on their document before submitting the print job. However, the copying function of the new printers has the option to print double-sided on the screen.
This project was planned to be implemented at the start of the semester; however, Ladrie said they wanted to wait for “the latest and greatest” Lexmark printers.
PaperCut, the software through which N.C. State’s printing system is run, is the company that developed FollowMe Printing, according to Ladrie. Other colleges have this printing system as well, including our neighbor, Meredith College.
Ladrie said he is unsure whether FollowMe Printing will be implemented into the new Talley Student Center.
“We would love to be in the new Talley and hopefully they’ll love to have us there as well,” Ladrie said.
The FollowMe Printing webpage can be found by going to N.C. State’s homepage and searching FollowMe Printing.
