Staff Use of Public Library Property and Services
In December 2002, the "Staff Use of Public Library Property and Services" policy was revised and one of the items updated was the following statement:
"Library employees may not install on library computer equipment, computer software (including application software), screen savers, wallpaper, games, etc. that have not been authorized by library automation staff through established procedures."
This memo is a reminder to all staff of this policy. It has been brought to my attention that the Information Technology (IT) staff have been finding more and more "freeware" software and screensavers installed on computers and many times this software has resulted in service calls because the computer is "locking up," "crashing when using various software packages or the Internet browser," "getting the blue screen of death," "getting a Dr. Watson error," along with various other usage and printing problems.
The libraries' computers are the property of the Metropolitan Library System. They are maintained on an NT network by the IT staff. Staff should not be installing software on any computer. Because the computers are on a network, there are various levels of access. While the staff level of access is greater than the public access, it does not have the rights to install software. If software is installed at the staff level, it cannot write property to the registry and therefore leads to problems when trying to troubleshoot an issue or in the case of an Internet plug-in such as "Flash," "Shockwave," etc., it may keep the IT staff from being able to upgrade the plug-in properly. In some cases, they have had to re-clone the computer from scratch to fix the problems caused by improper installation of software.
In the future, when IT techs find unauthorized software installed on a computer, it will be removed immediately. The name of the unauthorized software will be noted and reported to Jim Welch or Anne Fischer who will in turn report it to the senior Ad Team member of the department in which the unauthorized software was installed.
Staff needs to remember that abiding by policies and procedures is part of the performance appraisal and incidents of unauthorized software will be documented for future appraisals.
The IT department staff do not want to be the computer police. However, their mission is to keep the computers up and running as well as possible for both staff and the public. Therefore, to help keep the computers and network functioning as well as possible, IT staff needs all staff to cooperate by not installing unauthorized software and plug-ins.
