In this photo, a whiteboard is pictured on the second floor of the Homer D. Babbidge Library asking students for feedback on what kind of computers they would prefer in the Bookworms section of the library. (Marissa DiBella/The Daily Campus)
With no immediate plans to purchase computers, the library staff has been polling students with an easel in the Homer Babbidge Library that has the question ‘Mac or PC, laptop or desktop?’
“The easels are being used for proactive information gathering,” user experience and technology librarian Joelle Thomas said.
The easel was initially put up by Thomas at the start of the semester and has been moving from floor to floor every two weeks, Thomas said. Bookworms will be the last location.
Students have posted their responses to the computer questions with hundreds of Post-It notes.
“We have gotten 446 responses so far,” Thomas said.
Not only have students been leaving suggestions on the easel, but they have also been having conversations with each other via Post-Its.
“People get to tell us what they want and they seem to like this way,” Thomas said.
Since this past Tuesday, students have also had the opportunity to text their responses to the library staff.
The responses have been pretty evenly split, Thomas said. The ratio of students who voted for Macbooks versus PC laptops was 3:2 in favor of Macbooks.
The types of responses have also varied by floor, Thomas said. When the easel was on level 1 most of the responses were for PC desktops. This is likely because that floor is completely PC desktops, she said.
The responses on the other floors were mostly in favor of laptops. Thomas said she thinks this is because most people who are on those floors use laptops.
One student who commented, Caitlyn Mundrane a 3rd semester biomedical engineering major, voted based on familiarity and practicality.
“I picked PC because I’ve grown up on it,” Mundrane said. “PC has a wide variety of software, where for a Mac it has to be specifically for a Mac. That’s why I think it would be more practical for the university to get PCs.”
Another student, Luann Liang a 3rd semester urban and community studies major, also voted based on familiarity.
“I would like to see more PCs because that’s the type of computer I’m most familiar with,” Liang said. “ I would also prefer more desktops, but I’d be fine with laptops.”
The results of the easel polls will be posted once all of the votes have been counted at the end of the month, Thomas said.
Annabelle Orlando is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at annabelle.orlando@uconn.edu.