Re: Librarians horror (not for the faint hearted!)

[Melissa Davis <mbdavis@TENET.EDU>]

> Horrors!  CMOS died in our lower school computer.  It wouldn't even allow
> me to reboot.  A handy tech brought it to his shop and fixed it quickly
> but I have this horrible nightmare: what do you do, after you have
> automated and you no longer print pockets and cards and your computer
> goes belly up??? What do you do when all the students are milling about
> trying to check out their books and not be late for classes....
>
> What are your contingency plans.  Has this ever <shudder> happened?
>
> Roselle
>

Worst Case Scenario: take a notepad & record the patron barcode # and the
materials barcodes and whether they're being checked in or out.

Not Quite So Bad Scenario: buy a portable barcode reader (the kind you
can also use to take inventory) that will record circulation actions.

Best Case Scenario: the CMOS is on the circ computer attached to a
network - simply move to another network station and continue business as
usual (except you'll have to type in the barcode numbers because your
barcode scanner isn't attached to this station)

The _real_ nightmare (in 1 & 2 above) is how do you locate any materials -
your catalog just went south!! (in case your sleep wasn't disturbed enough
by the original post <BG> )

And for a totally sleepless night - the CMOS was on your network fileserver!

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        Melissa Davis                   Librarian
        Splendora Middle School         Splendora I.S.D.
        P O Box 168                     Splendora, TX 77372
        Internet: mbdavis@tenet.edu     PHONE: (713)689-2853
        CompuServe: 75146,771
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