New items will be purchased this semester
By R.Eguia
sac-ranger@alamo.edu
The office of technology services is lending out equipment for a maximum of two weeks at a time.
Equipment available to check out in Room 710 of Moody Learning Center includes flip cameras, Mac and PC laptops, CD players, webcams and more.
Students, faculty and staff are eligible to check out items, but equipment must be used for Alamo Colleges-related projects or events.
Usha Venkat, director of information technology, said she doesn’t want to retire some equipment too early, as some equipment checkouts are rare, like Zune MP3 players and portable CD players.
“Some things are just not necessary because smartphones can do it,” Venkat said.
The department purchases new equipment in the spring semester, so it can prepare the equipment in summer and have it fully ready by the fall semester, Venkat said.
The IT department reserves an annual budget for replacing equipment.
Laptops are at the top of Venkat’s purchase list because they are the most popular items to check out.
A waiting list for laptops is not unusual, Internet administration sophomore Patrick Gomez said.
Students typically receive items within a day of being on a waiting list, but never more than three days, Gomez said.
OTS laptops can be checked out with basic software and applications like Microsoft Office, virus scanner and an Internet browser.
In special cases, students and faculty can request equipment with applications such as Adobe Suites or other tools a student might need to complete specific courses.
For more information, visit http://www.alamo.edu/sac/ots/ and http://www.alamo.edu/sac/availableequipment/ for a complete list of available equipment.