Students looking to use a desktop computer on campus now have 85 more to choose from on the second floor of the Middleton Library.
The computer lab in room 241 has re-opened and is stocked with PCs and Macs from Patrick F. Taylor Hall, said director of library communications and publications Sigrid Kelsey.
The lab was closed by the Student Technology Fee Oversight Committee in May 2014.
“The lab that was there wasn’t owned or run by the library,” Kelsey said. “It was just housed here, and the student technology committee conducted a survey and found out that most students have laptops.”
Mechanical engineering senior Courtney Irwin said keeping the computers out of storage is helpful.
“I think most students are okay with the changes to PFT, because the new building is really going to be very nice,” Irwin said. “I rarely have used the Middleton computer labs since my freshman year, but I am likely to be there a lot this semester with the loss of the PFT labs.”
The committee decided to close the lab and reallocate the money to improve the University’s wireless internet.
“They pulled the lab and people complained about it,” Kelsey said. “We heard a lot of students who didn’t like the lab closing.”
The computers running in the reopened computer lab were displaced by the renovation to Patrick F. Taylor Hall. Ground was broken on the building in November, commencing one of the University’s largest building projects, according to its website.
The computers were moved to the library’s empty lab earlier this month.
STFOC member Tommy Smith, associate vice chancellor of finance and administrative services and vice provost for finance, told The Daily Reveille last semester that when construction began on Patrick F. Taylor Hall, the options for the computers were to move them into storage or to move them into the library for their continued use.
The second-floor computer lab might also alleviate some of the congestion on the first floor of the library.
Library science graduate student Chelsea Arseneault said the library was a cluster after the computer lab closed.
“It was really crowded last semester,” Arseneault said. “They’ve always had the second-floor lab, and they’ve always had the one in the Union, but this year, the one in the Union was gone and the one upstairs was gone. The one downstairs was a mess … it was way too crowded.”
In addition to using the computer lab, students can now look on the library’s website for online versions of textbooks for many University courses. Kelsey said. The books are free to use, but the library does not have books for every course offered.
She said in addition to the re-opened computer lab in room 241 and the free online textbooks, students can continue to use the library 24 hours a day.
However, the library has not had enough traffic to warrant opening floors other than the ground level after midnight.