Managing Clients in Libki

by Kyle Hall on Mar 22, 2021

This Libki tutorial will walk you through managing clients.

Managing Clients in Libki

Login to the Administration view of Libki.

Once you're logged in, navigate to the Clients tab.

We covered the Users tab in this previous tutorial.

At the top, you will see the Client Location filter. This would be used if you have multiple locations for your Clients in your library building. For example, a bank of computers in your Children's Room and a bank of computers on your 2nd Floor. If you are working in the Children's Room, then you could limit the view to only seeing these Clients. To go back to seeing all of your library Clients, simply toggle over to 'All'

If you hit 'Refresh' at the top, it will refresh the data on the table. The data will automatically refresh every 30 seconds and a countdown until the next refresh is displayed at the top of the Client tab.

In the top right hand corner, you have access to the same buttons you see in the Users tab, of New User, New Guest, and Multiple Users. These buttons are covered more in depth in this previous tutorial.

Below the User buttons, you will see 'Turn on all clients', 'Restart all clients', and 'Turn off all clients'. Let's take a look at each of these buttons.

Turn on all clients: As a caveat, this will work if your server is hosted on the same network as your Libki computers. If it is hosted on the Cloud or another network, this button will not work.

The other two should work across different networks.

Restart all clients: Restarts all computers using the Operating Systems' restart function.

Turn off all clients: Turns off all computers using the standard Operating Systems' shutdown function. You would most likely only use this function if there was an emergency (library building closing outside of normal hours, fire, etc.) and you were trying to clear patrons from the computers.

The Main Client Table

Now, let's go through the different functions outlined in the main client table on the screen.

On the top left you can adjust the amount of entries displayed by using the drop down menu. Depending on how many clients you have and your screen display, you can show 10-20-and so on.

The Search bar on the opposite side of the table, can help you search the table.

Name- Client Name- For example, Children's #1, Computer 4, etc.

Location- Client Location- If you only have one computer location, you may not see anything here. This would be utilized if you have clients spread out in different areas. For example, Children's Room and Computer Lab.

Type- You may have different types of clients that have different session lengths set. For example, if you have a dedicated Research or Homework computer, you may set these to different parameters than your General computers. These different types would be displayed in this column.

Session Status- This will almost always be 'Active' if someone is using a computer. This may show 'Pause' here if you have enabled this feature. An example of this would be if a patron got up to use the restroom or retrieve their print job they could lock their session. Their session time would continue to count down but they would not lose their spot at the computer.

Username- The name of the person logged in to a computer.

Daily Minutes- The total amount of minutes they have of computer use remaining for the day.

Session Minutes- The total amount of minutes they have left in their current computer session. When this hits zero, they are automatically logged off.

User Status- This will almost always say 'enabled'. You can mark a patron 'disabled' and this will prevent them from logging in in the future. This will not automatically kick them off.

Notes- An area to record any patron notes

Troublemaker- If a person is marked troublemaker status, they will have to sign in with staff every time they use a computer. This may have been necessary if the patron is a repeated policy offender or has been using multiple cards/logins to access more than their fair share of computer time

Reserved- If there is a reservation assigned to that computer, it will show up in this column

Status- This will show if the client is online or offline. The computers are constantly sending data or a "heartbeat" to Libki to let it know they are still up and running. If Libki does not hear from that computer for some time, it will automatically change the computer to "Offline". This is an indicator for staff to go check the status of that computer. Once it is turned back on and working, it will switch back to "Online".

Now, let's take a look at the controls staff have for each line of the Client table. When you hover over a line on the table, you will see 'Modify time', 'Reserve', 'Cancel Reservation', 'Unlock', 'Log Out', 'Toggle status', 'Delete', 'Restart', and 'Turn off'.

Modify time- Staff can adjust time for the person currently using the session

Reserve- Staff can place a reservation on that computer

Cancel reservation- Staff can cancel a reservation made on a specific computer

Unlock- If a patron has used the lock session/Pause feature, staff can unlock the session for them

Log Out- If a patron has broken the rules and needs to be removed from the computer or if a patron has left and there is a wait, staff can automatically end a session

Toggle status- Staff can change the status of a patron to 'Troublemaker' status

Delete- This would be used if you removed a computer from your computer bank and would not like it to show in your Libki Client table any longer. Be careful with this button; if you click 'Delete' and someone is logged on, this can end their session.

Restart- This is the same as 'Restart all clients', except instead of all computers connected to Libki, it will restart the individual computer that is highlighted in the table. Again, be careful with this button if someone is actively logged into that computer.

Turn off- This is the same as 'Turn off all clients', except instead of all computers connected to Libki, it will turn off the individual computer that is highlighted in the table. Again, be careful with this button if someone is actively logged into that computer.

About Libki

Libki is a cross-platform pc reservation booking and time management system designed to allow time limited access to computers on a network. Libki is ideally suited for use in locations where a controlled computing environment is paramount such as public access systems, libraries, school computer laboratories and more! It consists of two parts, the Libki server, and the Libki client. Visit the Libki site to learn more.