Library expands tech rentals to laptops, iPads and more

| Staff Reporter

“But my computer crashed!” will no longer be an excuse for late papers—Olin Library is now lending out laptops.

On Monday, the library began another phase of its technology rental program: five MacBook Air computers, along with other new offerings such as iPhone chargers, are now available for borrowing by students.

The library first began offering technology for checkout in fall 2012, when it began offering Mac chargers for students to check out. The decision to expand its technology offerings came after a survey in the fall semester that indicated students would be receptive to it.

“We got a lot of comments then about people needing expanded technology resources. So the question became, how are we going to provide this service?”

Circulation Librarian Chris Brady said.

Several departments of the library were involved in the expansion. The systems support office procured the new equipment through an endowment reserved for technology improvements while instructional support services worked out how many of each device would be needed.

Access services, located at the front desk, heads the actual checkout and distribution process.

The library now offers five MacBook Air laptops, 10 iPads, four iPhone 4 chargers, five iPhone 5 chargers, four Android chargers, presentation remotes/clickers, projectors, video cameras and terabyte hard drives. It will also soon offer two DSLR cameras for rental.

The iPads will be rented out for a period of one week while laptops and phone chargers can be rented for a maximum of three hours.

Brady said that the program is still in a trial period, and therefore the current lending periods are still subject to change, depending on students’ opinions.

“We want to check it out, see how it works,” he said. “If it works for most everybody, we will keep it that way. If we find out through feedback that it’s bad—that it’s too long [or] too short—we will adjust [it].”

Junior Kari Davis thought the laptops would be useful for students left in a lurch when their computers aren’t working correctly.

“The laptops are good in case you run into a technical issue and your laptop is broken,” Davis said. “The desktop computers [in the library] are really slow and don’t really work, so if you could rent out a laptop instead, why not do that?”

Senior Christina Chapman said she wasn’t likely to check out a laptop but already regularly checks out computer chargers from the front desk and would utilize the phone chargers.

“I don’t think I ever would rent a laptop, not because I don’t see the idea behind it, but I would easily just go and sit on a [desktop] computer,” Chapman said. “But I forget my iPhone charger every day, so I would definitely use the phone chargers.”

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