Submitted by hindmae2 on May 16, 2008 - 3:22am
A bunch of people have complained about there not being enough computers in the library. I only partially agree with this: yes, there aren't enough computers in the library--but this is only during a very short block of time out of the entire day, during what are called "peak hours". Go to the library on most days before noon and after five and you will have no problems. If we add more computers, for the rest of the time there will just be a bunch of idle computers, when maybe these computers could be placed more strategically around campus. Or the money could be used to update labs elsewhere.
For these reasons, it would be helpful to get creative about this situation. A couple ideas:
1) During peak hours (10-4, or whatever) there should be 10 minute time limits on a small number of the computers (perhaps the ones on the sky bridge?). This would encourage those who have long papers to write (who thus have longer blocks of time set aside) to use the other labs where the computers may have slower start up times, which they can absorb
2) someone already suggested this, but there should be another block of stand-up computers placed next to a different printing station, but perhaps drawn from one of the other larger blocks of computers (so we aren't adding more to the system)
3) the different departmental computer labs should be advertised to students of those departments better, and students from those departments should try to stick to their own computer labs
4) individuals generally should just be more considerate. If you are in the library during peak hours, you shouldn't be checking facebook when there is a line of people waiting to just print something off quick.
Maybe we need a couple new computers in the library to offset the problem a little; but I think that adding a whole new section would be wasteful, since the real problem of computer shortages really only occurs during a 5-6 hour block of time. After this, the computers are mostly open. We should think about the simple ways we can modify our behavior before we demand more computers, disregarding the environmental impact.
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