Into Print, The University of Iowa Business Services' quarterly newsletter, aims to educate, inform, and entertain its readers, with a goal of fostering positive communication between the departments, their staffs, and their clients.

IN THIS ISSUE
News briefs
General Stores-OfficeMax fall Product Show premieres October 26
Look for increased brightness in General Stores paper stock
Pencil it in - Spring office products show at UIHC
Send clips (paper, please)

TypeStrikes

General news
Mail and shipping updates, Surplus ebay sales, Stores catalogs on web
Check our classes, tours

Central Mail Services
Plan for mailing cost increase in early 2006
Character counts: Meet Dan Coburn

Parking and Transportation
High fuel costs drive UI employees to alternative transportation
    View photo
P&T wins home-game traffic challenge
Fleet Services welcomes new assistant manager
P&T to host regional parking and transportation conference
Chilled Water Plant expansion begins

Printing Department
Name reverts to Copy Centers
Copy Center Services offers document solutions
Other color options
    View photo
Just Your Type: Time-tested Garamond remains popular

Stores and Rental Services
General Stores' most frequently asked questions, plus answers
New stock at Maintenance Stores

10:15-10:45, Office Productivity with 3M
11:15-11:45, Time Management with ACCO
12:15-12:45, How to choose and use a chair with Global
1:15-1:45, Office Ergonomics with 3M

Vendors include 3M, ACCO, ACME United, Acroprint, Avery, BIC, BodyBilt, Brother, Clover Tech, Esselte/Dymo, Fellowes, FGB, GBC, Global, HP, Lexmark, Meadwest Vaco, Midwest Representatives, OMWorkspace Art, Pilot, Quartet, Sanford, Schoen and Assoc, Simon Labels, Softcare, and Southworth. Participating Business Services departments include General Stores, AP/Travel, Central Mail, Copy Centers, Printing, and Purchasing. The Printing Department will begin distributing its 2006 calendars that day. Join us for popcorn, lemonade, and fun!

SEND CLIPS: Send your excess paper clips (rubber bands, too!) to Central Mail.
We will recycle them to other UI departments.

USPS: The Postal Service lists any changes of shipments and services to disrupted ZIP Code areas. Updates may cover express mail embargos; changes in periodical and news publication drops; and locations of partial services. The USPS posts changes as they occur.

UPS: United Parcel Service gives instructions for critical air shipments to certain New Orleans ZIP Codes and posts lists of temporary and indefinite suspensions. It also recommends that customers contact their consignees in the Gulf Coast region before sending shipments, to determine if they are receiving deliveries.

FedEx: The web site states there may be pickup and delivery delays because of damage or access restrictions in hurricane-affected areas, and there may also be early cutoffs due to accessibility or curfews. Revised information and service updates are posted as they become available.

Surplus sells on ebay
University Surplus began selling items, mostly electronics, on eBay this summer. Go to the eBay web site to see or bid on current listings.

Maintenance Stores catalog on line
Maintenance Stores posts a complete catalog of its stock on line. It is accessible through a link on its web site. New items include spill kits for petroleum; first-aid supplies such as bandages, ibuprofen, and aspirin; face shields; replacement visors; lockout wall switches and circuit breakers; fire stop bags and pillows; Belimo, Operator LR24-SR; wrenches; security bit kits; and plastic pails. Delivery to campus addresses is free.

See below for a complete list of new items, with stock numbers. Contact Pat Mellecker, 335-5164, for more information.

General Stores: "Introduction to General Stores and Online Ordering," a staff development class covering General Stores and how to use the MIGS and SIGS ordering systems, will be held in November. MIGS and SIGS training is available on request. Contact: Judy Rockafellow.

Tours: Classes and small groups are welcome to tour Printing, Mail, and General Stores at the Mossman Building. Contact: Jenean Arnold.

New staff orientation: Business Services staff participate in the monthly new faculty and staff orientation sessions conducted by Learning and Development. Contacts: Linda Noble, Parking Services; Jenean Arnold, other Business Services departments.

Historical Printing Studio: The Center for the Book will conduct a class at the Mossman Building in November to teach historical typesetting and printing techniques. Contact: Gary Frost, UI Libraries. (.pdf directory)

[Top of page]

"I treat all the mail as if it's important," says Dan Coburn, the primary operator on Central Mail's VideoJet address printer. As the only addressing machine at Central Mail, the Videojet is usually running. It can keep two to four people busy, Dan says. Large jobs such as the hospital's "Well and Good" may require five workers - one just to hand him stacks of the publication as he starts sending them through.

"Sometimes there can be several weeks' worth of jobs to do," he says. So he's created as many as four hundred templates to improve efficiency. And each job requires machine adjustments based on several variables, helping to keep things interesting. Whether the mail piece is flat or folded; is an envelope or a self mailer; or has a glossy or matte surface all help him determine what type of ink to use, how many dots per inch to print, how fast to run the machine, and whether to use heat to dry the ink.

Dan previously worked as a prep cook at Mickey's, an Iowa City restaurant, and became the buyer for its parent company, Fresh Food Concepts. He spent thirteen years there, then moved on to a mail processing job at Hills Bank.

"I'm a native Iowa Citian. My grandfather is the oldest living Alberhasky in town," says Dan. As a youngster he worked on the farm with his grandfather, and they became very close. So much so that Dan chose his ninety-one-year-old grandfather to be the best man at his wedding three years ago.

Dan and his wife, Mary Pat, and their ten-year-old black Labrador retriever, Mack, live in rural Cedar County. "My wife and I like doing just about everything together," says Dan. They've already built a house.

"It looked like a moonscape when the contractor was finished, with bare soil, big clumps of clay everywhere," he says. They've put in a lawn; built a deck and three retaining walls; and planted sixty-five trees, two dozen shrubs, a dozen flower beds, and a fenced-in vegetable garden. But Dan is most proud of conquering thistles.

"We started with essentially five acres of Canadian thistle. Now, there's hardly any left," he says. It took hundreds of hours of digging, spraying, and mowing over three summers. Prairie grasses have begun to take root alongside mature oak and hickory trees.

"We have turkeys, coyotes, and other critters. Every window you look out, it looks like a Grant Wood view. There are geese flying overhead. It's worth the drive - I'm glad to be out there."

[Top of page]

Sticker shock at the gas pump has a lot of UI employees and students rushing to find cost-saving alternatives to driving their vehicles. Phones are ringing at the Commuter Programs office with people wanting to join van pools and car pools; its website had 85 percent more hits in August 2005 than in August 2004; bus pass sales are at an all-time high; and a flurry of motorcycles, mopeds, and bicycles can be seen all across campus.

Commuter Programs, a division of Parking and Transportation, has seen a steady increase in inquiries since gasoline hit the $2.50 per gallon mark. In the past year, those inquiries have resulted in gains in participation in almost all of its programs.

• The van pool program added four new van pools in July and currently has three more in the works.
• The employee car pool matching service has seen a 52 percent increase in the number of registered users.
• The student bus pass program has increased, from 1,145 passes to 1,571.
• Ridership by all UI bus-pass program participants has surged on both Iowa City and Coralville transit systems, from 40,906 rides in August 2004 to 49,659 in August 2005.

P&T has issued fifty-five more motorcycle permits this year than last year. In addition to an abundance of motorcycle and mopeds, bicycles are also very prevalent on campus. To increase the amount of bicycle parking, plans are under way to upgrade the parking areas in the Quadrangle ravine and at Medical Laboratories. Capacity in those two heavily used areas will increase by sixty-one and twenty spaces, respectively.

Also, the 2000 census shows Iowa City has seen an increase in an already high percentage of employees who walk to work. In 1990, 18.1 percent of UI employees walked to work; in 2000, it was 19.5 percent - 3,844 individuals.

As we are finding out, some people are not limiting themselves to the obvious transportation options of carpooling, mass transit, bicycling, and walking. They are becoming creative and using all their resources to help with commuting costs. One person is even using a kayak to come to campus for classes.

If you would like to join one of the programs sponsored by Commuter Programs, contact us at 353-5770 or visit our web site.
Michelle Ribble

Parking and Transportation and Public Safety have had years of experience to fine tune this delicate dance. They, along with Athletics, begin planning their strategy months before the first home game. Many factors play a role. Among them are sellout crowds, post-9/11 security measures, increased access needs to UIHC, and construction projects.

For the Parking department, football Saturdays really begin on Fridays. Facilities Operations staff make and place signs on campus to help direct the traffic flow. At Kinnick Stadium, Field Services staff begin controlling the entrances to Lot 43, directing permit holders to areas away from the recreational vehicle (RV) section and preventing early-bird parking. The lot is also controlled throughout the evening for security reasons.

At 6 p.m., vehicles arriving for football parking are allowed access, with cashiers on duty. Facilities Operations staff guide RV drivers in parking their vehicles and ensure that others do not enter this section. RV parking has its challenges, as any person who has directed eighty-five of them into parking stalls can tell you.

While Lot 43 is the most visible football parking area, other lots are also heavily used by fans, including Lot 40, on Hawkins Drive, and the Finkbine Commuter Lot. An additional eighty cashiers are on hand throughout the weekend to collect fees for game-day parking.

But not everyone coming to campus on football Saturdays is going to the game - which is why P&T protects some lots, such as Lot 13, next to Hillcrest and Quadrangle, for staff going to work. Field Service staff also help monitor the hospital ramps for capacity issues, and it assists in shutting them down when necessary. They are on duty to manage the parking lots, assist cashiers and Public Safety as needed, and monitor campus to keep areas clear.

Cambus employees play a vital role by operating free shuttle buses from downtown Iowa City, the Hancher lot, and the Hawkeye Lot. Service runs for about two hours before the game and about an hour after.

Currently we use thirteen buses. On average, Cambus provides about 6,000 rides to about 3,000 fans on game days. These shuttles are key to reducing the amount of traffic around the stadium. Post-game activity can get pretty hectic as thousands of people try to board the buses, especially if the game is close and everyone leaves the stadium around the same time.

We have noticed fans are more patient if the weather is nice and the Hawkeyes win. But a win for us is measured not only by the points on the scoreboard, but also by how successful we were at managing both football and hospital activities simultaneously.
Michelle Ribble

Deb started working at Fleet Services in August. She comes to UI from McLeodUSA Telecommunications Services, Inc. in Cedar Rapids, where she worked as fleet manager. Deb and her husband live in Cedar Rapids with their three daughters.
Mike Wilson

Last year the University of Minnesota hosted an outstanding conference which has left Iowa with big shoes to fill. But we are up to the challenge and are busy making preparations to showcase our department and ideas to the attendees. Invitations will be sent to 661 members and vendors. For more information check the Conferences and Institutes' web site.
Michelle Ribble

[Top of page]

The document production services it provides include color and black-and-white printing and copying; on-demand, variable data, mail merge, and address printing; finishing; and binding. Also on the menu are course packets published by faculty members; copyright searches; self-service copying and printing in the libraries; and departmental printer management.

The six Copy Centers produce brochures, reports, manuals, course packs, signs, posters, and more. They are inexpensive and quick, with a standard turnaround time of 24 hours or less. Walk-ups are welcome, and a pickup and delivery service is available. Paper in a variety of colors, weights, and sizes is available, as well as cards, brochure shells, binders, and report covers preprinted with the UI dome logo and wordmark. The networked printers can produce documents from electronic files. Customers send documents from their computers to the Centers' server through the web, reducing the potential for errors and delay.

Each Center provides print-on-demand service: customers order the exact quantity they need, receive the finished order quickly, and reorder when they need more. This reduces not only the need for storage, but also paper waste.

One of the newest printing technologies, variable data printing (VDP), is now available through Copy Center Services. VDP merges a static document design with information from a data base. The process is similar to but allows for more variability than mail merge. Its users claim much higher response rates to their mailings.

UPACS and Copyright Service provides faculty who publish course packs a seamless process for producing them. Professors send files to the server over the web, and Copy Center staff prepare and assemble all the elements for printing. This may include cleaning scans, scanning hard copy, and merging hard copy with digital files. Then they print and bind the document, burn supplementary CDs, and electronically archive it so that it can be recalled for revisions at any time. Copyright Service obtains the permission needed to use copyrighted material, makes payments, submits reorders, and maintains records.

Copy Center Services manages the self-service copying and printing equipment in most of the libraries on campus. The printers are networked with the Libraries' computer workstations.

Additionally, Copy Center Services manages printers for UI departments that wish to work in partnership to install high-speed, digital printers that may otherwise be unaffordable to them. The Copy Centers' staff provides installation, training, and tech support and takes responsibility for toner, paper, printer supplies, machine purchases, and service calls.

For a stock list, prices, hours, locations, and more go to Copy Center Services' web site. Contact any Copy Center or the manager, Marge Kline, for more information.

An article in the last issue of Into Print explained the differences between the types of color used in offset printing. Other ways to incorporate color into printed material, to get attention and help communicate your message, are color copies, color prints, and colored paper. All are quick and easy to obtain.

Color copies can give you either full, photographic-type color or spot color, which you might use for line art or graphs. They are an excellent way to produce signs and posters up to 11x17 inches and small items such as bookmarks. Also, many customers add color covers and single-page inserts to publications that are produced on black-and-white printers. We offer fast turnaround and per-copy pricing that includes a choice of several paper weights.

Our large-format color printer produces large posters, signs, and high-impact visual material in full, photographic-type color or spot color, on 50-inch wide paper that comes off a 100-foot roll. The turnaround is fast, and the cost is per linear inch of paper used.

Colored paper can improve the visibility of flyers and small signs printed with black ink or toner. However, the low contrast between black ink and dark paper can be difficult to read. And, as a rule, colored papers are not a good choice to use for color copies.

Color copies are available at the MBSB Color Center and IMU Copy Center; the large-format color printer is at the MBSB Color Center. All the Copy Centers stock a wide range of colored papers in various weights. They are priced per sheet.

These roman and italic type designs were innovative in that they did not imitate handwriting. Their use encouraged the adoption of roman instead of gothic type as standard.

Some, but not all, of the contemporary Garamond typefaces are based on the 16th century designs. Adobe Garamond, the typeface used for the text in the print version of this newsletter, is one that uses elements of the original design.

The Garamond typeface is in the Old Style family of 15th- to 17th-century typefaces, defined in part by minimal variation of thick and thin strokes; small, coarse serifs, often with slightly concave bases; small x-height; lowercase ascenders often exceeding the height of the capital characters; and numerals that vary in size and have ascenders and descenders.

In particular, the Garamond characteristics include top serifs of lowercase letters that are extended, diagonal, and curving to join the main strokes. The uppercase T has a slanted top left serif and a straight top right serif.

The typeface is described as light, airy, elegant, graceful, delicate, inviting to the eye, and highly readable. It remains one of the most popular text faces even today.

Thanks to Kay Amert, UI professor of Journalism and Mass Communications and noted typography expert, for contributing to this article.

[Top of page]

Q   SIGS and MIGS confuse me. Please explain.
&A   It is a bit confusing. SIGS is our on-line ordering system for the items stocked at General Stores. MIGS is our on-line system for the items supplied by OfficeMax.

Q   What's up with Pcard web ordering from OfficeMax?
&A   This is the easiest and most efficient way to order office supply products. More than 500 University of Iowa customers have signed up for web access, and about 30 percent of our orders are now placed with UI procurement cards (Pcards) on the web. The web ordering system makes it easy to check inventory, set up shopping lists, search for items in many ways, track orders, and have access to many more items than are shown in the paper catalog. Most items are available for next-day delivery. If you would like to be set up for web ordering, contact Gary Anderson at gary-anderson@uiowa.edu. It is quick and easy, and our customers love it.

Q   On Pcard web ordering, what does the ship-to code indicate?
&A   The ship-to code indicates the area of campus where the order is to be delivered. General Stores has sectioned the University into several zones. The ship-to codes represent these zones. OfficeMax groups UI orders according to this code. Most of our customers order for one department and everything ships to the same area. However, a few customers order for several areas. These customers use multiple ship-to codes. If you have any questions about this please contact Gary Anderson, 384-3917 or gary-anderson@uiowa.edu.

Q   I can't find the item I am looking for in the OfficeMax catalog. Does that mean it is not available?
&A   Not at all. There was only room for a certain number of items in the paper catalog. If everything available from OfficeMax was in the catalog it would be too heavy to lift. Again, we recommend checking the web. There are many more items listed there than will fit in the catalog. Some of our customers use the web as a resource to check for item availability and pricing. Then they order the item on MIGS, which contains most of the items found on the web.

Q   What's next for General Stores?
&A   We are hoping to combine our two ordering systems. Being able to order OfficeMax items and General Stores items via Pcard or MFK on one system is our goal. We hope to have something available sometime this year (fiscal year, that is).

Q   What if I have a question on my order or am confused. Who should I call?
&A   If your question is about an item stocked by General Stores, call 384-3906. If it is a question about an OfficeMax item, call either our local OfficeMax representative, Matt Ehn, at 384-3908, or the OfficeMax Help Desk at 1-800-328-7042.

Q   Would you tell me about the new Personal Purchase Program?
&A   Yes, here are the details.

Personal Purchase Program guidelines
Order on line at www.officemaxsolutions.com. There are only a few requirements. You must

• be a University of Iowa employee and have a "uiowa.edu" email address,
• have an OfficeMax login and password,
• order a minimum of $40 on your own personal credit card, and
• pay state tax on your purchase (it is automatically added).

If you have OfficeMax Pcard ordering access, you are already set up for this program. Log in as usual and go to the ship-to code dropdown box. Choose EMPLOY for a personal purchase, fill in your order, and complete the delivery and credit card information when you check out.

If you need an OfficeMax login, send an email to 01_ecs@officemax.com that contains your name, department, and phone number. Ask for a login to use for the University of Iowa Personal Purchase Program.

You will receive the University's contract pricing, and your merchandise will be delivered to your home by UPS, with no shipping fees unless your order totals less than the minimum $40. If it does, you will be charged for shipping on a separate invoice.

Be sure to select the correct ship-to code, and do not charge personal purchases from OfficeMax to a University procurement card. This would be a violation of the procurement card policy and procedures.

[Top of page]

Story ideas: Are there topics we haven't covered that you would like to see in our newsletter? Do you have questions you would like us to address? Send an e-mail to jenean-arnold@uiowa.edu or a memo to Into Print,126C MBSB.

Address corrections and additions: If you wish to be added to the Into Print mailing list, fill out and send our form or e-mail the following information [University of Iowa campus addresses and @uiowa.edu e-mail suffixes only] to jenean-arnold@uiowa.edu:

• Your name
• Department
• Campus Mail address
• whether you want the print version, e-mail notification of Web posting, or both.

E-mail us: Send questions and comments about departmental topics to:

Bionic Bus . . . bionic-bus@uiowa.edu
Cambus information . . . cambus-dispatching@uiowa.edu
Central Mail . . . central-mail@uiowa.edu
Commuter programs . . . commuter-programs@uiowa.edu
General Stores . . . genstores@uiowa.edu
Motor Pool . . . motor-pool@uiowa.edu
Parking facilities operations . . . facilities-dispatch@uiowa.edu
Parking services . . . parking-office@uiowa.edu
Wide Media Center . . . widemedia-printing@uiowa.edu

Copy Centers:
Boyd Law . . . dcblb-printing@uiowa.edu
Hardin Library . . . dchlhs-printing@uiowa.edu
Iowa Memorial Union . . . dcimu-printing@uiowa.edu
Med Labs . . . dcml-printing@uiowa.edu
Mossman Building . . . dcmbsb-printing@uiowa.edu
Pappajohn Bldg . . . dcpbb-printing@uiowa.edu
UPACS and Copyright Service . . . upacs-printing@uiowa.edu