Week 4 - the term so far

Well, we are in week 4 and it's been a 17 days of ups and downs - luckily mainly ups.  No matter how prepared you are for the beginning of term, and we are pretty well prepared, it still happens like a tidal wave and all you can do is go with it.  This sounds slightly dramatic but I think you need to be a bit manic to cope with it all.
The good parts are that we have had no disasters, we've had lots of students coming into the LRC, logging on to computers, using Blackboard, using e-Books, borrowing books and printing and all have gone away relatively happy.  The difficult parts are that by week 3 you are switching into trouble shooting mode as it becomes busier and situations crop up that you hadn't anticipated.  I don't mind this but I know it is difficult for some people and can only work for a short period of time and has to be backed up with proper processes but I like to think that what ever a student needs to know or do, we can help to some extent.   
Our VLE has worked well in the most part and this is due to the hard work of our
e-learning manager and e-learning technologist - every course that is taught in the College has a corresponding Blackboard course so  everybody uses it.  During inductions we make sure students can get logged on correctly and can find their Blackboard course and access course materials.  Also we access the library catalogue through Blackboard and the online databases and e-Book collections so it plays a big part in what we do.  We have some issues with incompatibilities with Windows 7 and or Internet Explorer 9 but have managed and hope the rest are being worked on asap.  The WebDAV is not working with Win7 for the electronic course file and a few other  issues but I keep chasing them up.
The computers have been working reasonably well although it's taken a while to get MyPC, the computer booking system, sorted.  It's still hanging onto some bookings if users log off rather than shutting down which means we have to check up regularly - all our computers in the LRC, 185 of them are booked at the desk - it seems like a lot of work but it cuts down on problems, helps us monitor usage, works well, and manages the space effectively.  We definitely have more students this year and last week had approx 1400 students per day using the LRC on Tues, Wed & Thurs.  We have turnstiles on our entrances / exits and they work really well - students swipe in with their ID cards and are happy to do so (some even thought they were great) - we get very few 'tailgaters' or 'jumpers' and it manages the space well.  They know that they are coming into a learning area and respect that it is different to a social area.
We've had lots of student reading books especially the graphic novels and manga collections which is pleasing.  There is a good mix of students reading, going on computers and using the study spaces - you need the mix to make it work.