Trinity College gets 24 brand new laptops for library

Students at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland can now loan one of the 24 laptops available for private use within the Berkeley, Ussher and Lecky libraries.

High demand for desktop computers, coupled with the limited supply of them had led to the purchase of the Microsoft Office-equipped laptops, according to University Times.

Students had previously had to bring their own laptops to work in the library.

In the trinity library and 99% of students have macbooks and here is me with a laptop that has tape keeping it together #mademelaugh

— ciara mc kinney (@CiaraMcKinney) November 9, 2013

After collecting their laptops from the lower ground floor of the Berkeley Library, students will be able to use for up to three hours, free of charge. It’s an entirely self-service process, where students scan their Trinity ID card and follow the onscreen instructions to get access to the laptops, according to Trinity News.

Laptops that are late will be fined EUR2 (US$2.45) for every overdue hour, and the borrowers’ library account will be blocked from any further borrowing of any library material two hours after the initial due time. Any lost or stole laptops will be fined EUR500 (US$611.35).

The new loan service was conveyed to students via an email to students from the Librarian and College Archivist, Helen Shenton.

Some students suggested that the school’s student union should consider doing the same, while others merely said “wow” at the total number of laptops bought.

Trinity’s not the only university to have such services. The University of Sheffield and University of Surrey are among those who provide laptops for loan at their libraries in the UK, while other Irish universities to have done the same include University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin City University (DCU) and University College Cork (UCC).

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