This begins an occasional series looking at the day-to-day activities of campus groups and individuals. This type of article was frequently requested by respondents to last semester's CSJ reader survey.
If you could peek behind the scenes at technical support and repair, you'd see the staff playing. That's what it looks like they're doing, anyway, says assistant director Cindy Legare. Actually, the techies glued to their computer screens are "teaching themselves software packages, reading everything they can get their hands on, and experimenting with the software." In a field as fast moving as computers, it's hard to stay ahead of the inventions.
Most people, though, never realize all the reading and testing necessary to answer computer users' questions. They just want someone to answer the phone and deal with their problems when they need help. Now the campus community can call "help" from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm on weekdays. Those are the hours of the technical support and repair wing of Library, Information, and Technology Services (LITS), which shares its growing expertise at a new "help desk" at 208 Dwight Hall. A phone call to x2600, a visit to Dwight, or email to help2600 will put you in touch with one of twenty professional staff people and ten students who take turns handling a broad range of software and hardware problems for students, faculty, and staff.
"The computing staff is very diverse in its knowledge, so your chances of getting an answer in-house are good," says Legare. They fielded about 10,000 calls last year, answering questions about everything from "Can you try to figure out why my computer isn't working right?" (yes) and "Can you help me recover a document that disappeared when my computer crashed?" (probably) to "Would you install more memory into my home computer?" (no; they work only on College-owned machines).
They also conduct on-site training for entire offices and one-on-one training for faculty and staff. They've even helped configure systems to help employees conduct business when away from the office.
Technical support and repair not only answers questions and troubleshoots all kinds of hardware and software difficulties, but also repairs computers. Behind the help desk is a large room, one wall of which is crammed with computer equipment. Facing that is a pegboard filled with tools, wire, and spare parts. This is the "operating room," where computers are dismantled and problems diagnosed and corrected. Legare says the staff works collaboratively to solve perplexing repair challenges. "Some of the problems are really bizarre," she says, "But even when something seems impossible, we know there's got to be a way and that the answer just hasn't been detected yet. Nobody gives up."
![[Go Back]](../goback.gif)