[Wactclc-primo] KUOW (NPR Seattle affiliate) - Need A Laptop? Colleges Boost Loaner Programs Amid Pandemic (radio story from last week)

[Guidry, Wade]

I mentioned this KUOW (Seattle NPR affiliate) story on Thursday's call last week.

Highlights the increased need and provisioning of laptops to students at Everett Community College and elsewhere in higher ed.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/need-a-laptop-colleges-boost-loaner-programs-amid-pandemic

I don't see a link to the original audio, but I assume the text is a straight transcript. (I assume that 'rentals' in the pull quote below really means 'loans'.)

"A lot of people still felt laptops were a luxury as opposed to a must-have," says Tim Rager, who leads the Information Technology department at Everett Community College. "Now we're realizing it's really a must have."

The northwest Washington community college, like many schools, had long had a laptop loaner program, where students could check out a computer for a few hours, like a library book. They had about 50 devices on hand.

But when classes went virtual, they switched from short-term rentals to longer-term rentals. And they were inundated with requests.

"So all of a sudden, 'OK, wait! We've got to expand this,' " remembers Rager. Fifty laptops was not enough. So he and his team purchased 400 more. Rager thought that was enough. He was wrong. "That initial four hundred were just gone. They were just gobbled up." So they ordered another 700.


Wade Guidry
WACTCLC
Library Consortium Services Manager
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
http://www.wactclc.org<http://www.wactclc.org/>
509.760.4474

Pronouns: he/him/his


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