Printing is a crucial component of the professional writer’s process, but it is somehow one that gets overlooked quite often. Writers always remember spellcheck and page numbers, hyperlinks and proper file formatting, but printing ends up being an afterthought the morning of an assignment’s due date. Fortunately, UAB has printers in high and low places for students to use for various purposes.
UAB offers multiple locations for student printing on campus (yes there are more printers than those in Mervyn Sterne) and provides services outside of simple black and white printing. All of UAB’s printing services can be accessed with a quick swipe of your campus or One card and some handy Blazer Bucks or even a debit or credit card. Printing and photocopying can be done in black and white or color for varying costs.
Most notably for undergraduate students, the Mervyn H. Sterne library offers black and white as well as color printing on the first floor through the public computers spaced around the collaborative learning space. To print in black and white, it costs nine cents per page and fifty cents in color. Additionally the Educational Technology Service (ETS) in room 238 of the Education building offers printing services. For Honors College students in one of the Global and Community Leadership, Science and Technology, or Experiential Learners Scholars honors programs, the fifth floor honors space in Heritage Hall offers printing and copying in the computer lab for the same charge as in the Sterne library. Residents of Camp and Rast halls have access to in-building computer labs that offer free black and white printing if individual paper is provided.
For the graduate students who cannot fathom making the trek to Sterne, Lister Hill Library offers printing and copying also (undergraduates can use these also)! Black and white printers are on the first floor behind the HUB whereas color printers are in front of the elevators. Black and white printing and copying runs ten cents per page and color printing and copying costs seventy-five cents per page.
If printing on the good old eight and a half by eleven page is not what you need, UAB is ready to assist. The UAB Campus Printing and Mailing Center provides state of the art printing and mailing services. Large scale print jobs such as flyers, banners, posters—anything but newsprint— can be printed and delivered from the center. Projects have a two day turnaround time. The center also houses a USPS contracted post office.
Printing is obviously more than an afterthought on campus—for good reason as professional writing students rely heavily on printing for proofing drafts and finishing assignments. With so many options, scrambling for a printer the morning of a due date should be a thing of the past.
