Week of Computer Challenges in the Library

The past few days have been interesting in terms of computers in the library. This past Saturday, electrical power was cut off from our servers at the downtown computer services building. As such, we had no Internet all day Saturday and had to operate on backup circulation. At the ref desk, we had to offer our best guesses while answering questions and traditional services like ILL and our electronic database areas were not available. In the computer lab, the associate only had 17 people use the computers for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. She had to decline requests for Internet services for 92 patrons. Saturday was a tough, tedious day to work. We were back to full services on Sunday.
Today, we received an upgrade in our access management software for the computer lab. The first version was installed on June 25th. However, coding in the software could not deal with Young Adult/Juvenile cards that were put on the waiting lists for a computer and the software could not deal with patron cards that showed revoked computer privileges. I worked the lab this morning for two hours to see how the new software would take. It seems to work like a charm (knock on wood). To be honest, it has been frustrating times since the software has been installed. But my lab associates have been crafty enough to deal with all the quirks and hic-cups the old software has set forth. Hopefully the new upgrade will provide some relief from all the pressures the old software brought. And we need that relief. Our computer lab leads our system in usage-averaging 50 percent of the entire usage for our four branches.