Library allows students to check out laptops
Imagine the following: It’s 2 p.m. on a Thursday and you have an 800-word essay due for a class in an hour. As you step past the circulation desk of the library you gaze at the computer area and every computer is taken. The entire library is full of students doing last minute printing, browsing Facebook or watching YouTube videos with their friends. Starting to panic, you try to think of a friend who might be at the library whose laptop you can borrow, but nobody comes to mind. There you are, computer-less and running out of time to write that last-minute essay for class. Panic begins to set in.
Fortunately, there’s a solution – the GCSU library offers laptops for checkout at the circulation desk. The program, which started this past summer, offers students the ability to checkout library-owned laptops for academic use. Though the area these laptops can be used in is limited to the library premises, they offer a useful alternative to the stationary – and limited – desktops on the second and first floors. Each laptop comes equipped with basic software programs that include Internet access through either Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Office, allowing students to access the resources they need in order to work.
While the laptops allow students the freedom to move around the library and make research and working more convenient, there are some drawbacks. The selection is limited to Windows-based Dell machines, so Mac users are out of luck for the time being. At the moment, printing wirelessly to the library’s printers is also not available, but SERVE, the campus tech center, is working toward enabling the feature for future use. The only other caveat to working with the laptops is that, because they are for public use, the computers run on temporary sessions which end when the student logs out.
“While these laptops are available for full use by students, no data is saved on the computers and the computer will be reset when they are restarted,” said Sonny McKenzie, Technical Support Specialist for the GCSU library.
Despite the program’s lack of advertising, checking out a laptop is as easy and convenient as checking out a book. In order to check out and use a laptop students must have a valid GCSU ID and library account, and have no outstanding fines on their account. Laptops are available for a two-hour time period before they must be returned or renewed at the circulation desk. Currently only a handful of laptops are available to use, but a growing demand for their use could help spur the program into making more units available.
The program, while still in its infancy, is expected to continue to grow as the demand of students increases. And as it does, students will be allowed the opportunity to take their academic experience – no longer tethered by desktops – to new places and new heights
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 2 2009. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
