The Salvatore G. Rotella Digital Library and Learning Resource Center, also known as the Riverside City College library, is advertised as the main center for printing on campus. Students with an assignment or anything that may need to be printed are often referred to the library, but recently the RCC library has encountered an issue.
At the start of the fall semester, students quickly discovered the library’s inability to print, with Shannon Hammock, RCC’s Library Technical Services Librarian chair saying that “the library previously had a long-standing contract with Advanced Copy Systems (ACS), which provided paid printing services through coin-operated machines.”
Unfortunately, ACS phased out both the coin machines and their printing services in Spring 2023,” reports Shannon Hammock, Chair, RCC Library Technical Services Librarian, said. During the 2023-2024 school year, the library offered free printing but would no longer be able to with the phasing out of machines. There were some things that were beyond our control,” Hammock said.
Due to the library’s inability to print, students at RCC such as Santiago Flores, a second-year Math and Science major, have been struggling in class to turn in assignments.
“It has just been very inconvenient” Santiago expressed. “I would use the printers in the library to print out my lab for chemistry or my English paper, things I need in order to succeed in my classes. Without the library, I don’t know where else to go for printing.”
Students around campus have been encouraged to visit their engagement centers for printing. A big help to this printing crisis has been the Language Humanities, and Social Science (LHSS) Engagement Center. LHSS Educational Advisor, Douglass Johnson, claims that the library’s inability to print has affected LHSS in a plethora of ways.
“The lack of printing at the library has significantly impacted the LHSS Engagement Center, leading to a surge in traffic to our center and an exponential increase in the demand for printing,” Douglass said.
Douglass asserts though there has been much traffic, it has given the staff of LHSS the ability to engage with and support more students by offering them other resources and services, much more than printing.
“We are using this as a marketing opportunity for the LHSS Engagement Center, showcasing the positive impact of our services and programs, and the fact that we have counseling hours available Monday through Friday.”
In response to the printing crisis, the library has been actively working towards a solution. Hammock states that the library has “found their solution, and as of now, they are waiting on a response from higher-ups at the ‘college and district level’.”
“Wepa has been chosen as the new printing vendor, and we are currently waiting for the budget approval process at both the College and District levels to be completed before the equipment can arrive for students to use,” Hammock concludes.
