[WEB4LIB] responses to query on wireless laptop usage

[Drew, Bill]

I would strongly suggest that this topic would get lots of good discussion
in my LibWireless group.  Maybe Steve can post his question there.

Bill Drew

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Oberg, Steve [mailto:STOBERG at TAYLORU.EDU] 
> Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 12:34 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] responses to query on wireless laptop usage
> 
> 
> I apologize for the lengthy time it has taken me to get back 
> to the list as a whole with a summary of responses to my 
> question from a few weeks ago about wireless laptop usage.  
> Here is what I've heard thus far.  I really appreciate these 
> responses.  On the other hand, I would be surprised if there 
> aren't more libraries out there with some comparative 
> statistics to report that haven't spoken up yet.  I also 
> heard from several people who were very interested in 
> information on this topic. Maybe someone with more time than 
> I have can set up a formal study/survey on this issue and 
> write it up for publication!
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> >From a college library:
> 
> "We have 6 laptops with wireless cards. In 105 days (slightly 
> more than our spring semester, minus closed days), we had 
> 1582 circulations total. So, around 15 total circulations a 
> day, 2.5 per machine. In your case, sounds like 170 checkouts 
> per machine / 90 days = ~1.9, so that's in the same ballpark. 
> We also had some downtime, but we were fully in business most 
> of the time. (We have a backup machine.) 
> 
> They loan for 2 hours at a time. We have a computer classroom 
> and other public machines. I think our student body is a bit 
> bigger. Term time, we're typically open 48 hours a week."
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> >From a mid-sized university library:
> 
> "We've had phenomenal use of our wireless laptops this past 
> semester. We have a student body of about 8,500 students and 
> have 18 wireless laptops available for circulation.  We have 
> 58 public PCs for Internet searching, but do not have MS 
> Office installed on these machines for typing papers.  The 
> wireless laptops however DO have Office, which may fuel their 
> hot demand.  We restrict their circulation and use to inside 
> the building.
>  
> For Jan 1 - April 30 of this year, we had 1,776 laptop 
> circulations. There were a few days this semester where 
> literally every one of the 18 laptops was in circulation and 
> we had to take a waiting list for 1 or 2 people."
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> >From another mid-sized university library:
> 
> "We have about 3000 students and circulate 30 laptops in our library 
> (along with 15 opacs, and a small lab of 12 pcs) In the 198 days we 
> were open from October 7th, 2003 to April 30th, 2004, the total 
> number of charges was 27,798. 
> 
> On one insane day (23 March), between 8:30 am and 11:00 pm we 
> had 273 charges and we were frequently over 200 charges per day. 
> 
> I'm not sure if that is high, low or average myself, but 
> there it is.  I
> 
> am currently working on a draft of a survey of students regarding 
> laptop use, and that may tell us more.  We are also reviewing the  
> staffing implications, especially given the time taken up with 
> charging and discharging machines."
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> Steve
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Steve Oberg
> Electronic Resources Librarian &
>   Assistant Professor
> Taylor University
> www.taylor.edu
>