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Issue
25 - September 2000
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How've the
Notebook Loan Pools Been Doing?
By
Noel Laam
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To complement the inauguration
of the campus wireless LAN, two notebook loan pools have been
set up since last March and maintained by the Facilities Management
Office (FMO) and the Library (LIB) respectively to lend compatible
notebook computers to our students. With such a notebook in hand,
students would be connected to the campus network and hence the
Internet in most of the public areas on campus. The popularity
of the notebooks reigned all, and below is a brief account of
how the loan pools have been doing.
FMO
There were altogether 200 notebooks
for loan to students, and they could keep one for 24 hours except
for the weekend when they could hold it till the following Monday.
The frequent long queue outside the loan pool counter was quite
a scene and it simply demonstrated that the current provision
was far from sufficient to meet the growing demand. It was an
interesting phenomenon that the penalty charges collected on Mondays
and the day after the Public Holidays outnumbered the amount collected
on the other weekdays - students would rather pay for the overdue
charge of HK$40 per day in order to keep the notebook for several
days.
Statistics showed that students from
24 departments have used the service and almost half of them came
from the EE, MEEM, BST and CM. Of all eligible students about
one-fifth had at least borrowed the notebook once. Most of them
commented that it would be desirable if the loan period could
be longer, the coverage of wireless LAN extended to laboratories
and Amenities Building, and more software added to the recovery
CD for wider applications.
In response to students' feedback
and in order to improve the situation, some actions/decisions
were taken/made accordingly:
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60 wireless LAN cards were immediately
acquired for loan to students having their own notebooks to
alleviate the surging demand. Besides, 200 sets of new Pentium
III notebooks would be purchased to add to the existing loan
pool.
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Wireless LAN was later extended
to cover the student canteen and Late Reading Room to meet
the demand, and coverage to Chinese Civilization Centre (CCIV),
laboratories and common rooms was recommended. Popular software
might be added as well to the recovery CD to satisfy the students'
needs.
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The existing counter for running
the loan pool would be refurbished to increase the space necessary
for efficient operation, and flexible manpower deployment,
including employing some student helpers, would be adopted.
To allow a higher turnover, the present
loan period will be maintained for the time being so that more
students can use the service.
LIB
Another notebook loan pool of a smaller
scale was run by the LIB to enable students to get connected to
the campus network inside the LIB. There were 50 notebooks for
loan to both full-time and part-time students. They had to return
the computer within the same day and could use it only inside
the LIB. The average loan rate was close to a pretty 100 loan/day,
which was quite encouraging. Again, behind all the popularity
lay some familiar problems such as limited notebooks and batteries,
extra workload for staff, insufficient software etc. It was decided
that 30 wireless LAN cards would be added and the 50 Pentium II
notebooks on loan to academic colleagues for the wireless LAN
pilot test would be collected and added to the loan pool, some
more software, including Chinese ones, would be acquired, and
re-arrangement of work would be made to absorb the extra workload.
The overwhelming success of the two
notebook loan pools was an eminent indicator of the need for the
campus wireless LAN, and the CSC will continue to work hand in
hand with the FMO and LIB to provide the quality service being
sought after.
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