Laptops and Computers in the Owen Library

The Owen Science and Engineering Library has 5 laptop computers available for current WSU students, staff, and faculty. The six HP Compaq Notebooks each have 2GB of RAM, as well as DVD/CDRW drives, wireless Internet access, and other standard features like Adobe Reader, Microsoft Office 2007, Real Player, and IM packages. One added feature of the laptops is the Pharos printing software for printing to the science library’s black and white printers. These laptops are available for 4 hour checkout; they are due back in by 15 minutes before the library closes. The laptops come packaged with a carrying case, power cords, mouse, and headphones.

Wireless access

There are eleven wireless access points to enable students and faculty to gain access to internet based library resources from laptops while in the library. The service is available to WSU students, faculty and staff. However, there are some areas with weak signal strength in the innermost study rooms. For more information about wireless service, please see WSU IT’s wireless pages; see also a map of the areas on campus with wireless access.

Wired access

Owen has wired carrels to enable students and faculty to gain access to internet based library resources from laptops while in the library. The service is available to WSU students, faculty and staff. Wired access is found in the carrels on the first floor near the south end of the building, in the group study rooms located on the west side of floors 4 through 6, and in the carrels to the north end of the study rooms.

To use this free service you will need:

  • A laptop with a network card
  • An ethernet cable (one can be checked at the circulation desk).
  • A WSU Roving IP address. To obtain a Roving IP address please DHCP Registration. For more information please see the DHCP FAQ

Public computers

Computers on the first floor of the Owen Science and Engineering Library have Microsoft Office programs (Access, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel) for students to use and are available on a first come, first serve basis. Print copies of Word for Dummies, Excel for Dummies, Access for Dummies, and PowerPoint for Dummies are available for use in the first floor Reference area. These titles can also be found as ebooks in Search It.

Note:

  1. If the computer is in sleep-mode, move the mouse and wait a few seconds to wake it up.
  2. If the mouse is not moved for 20 minutes the computer may reset. All unsaved work will be lost.
  3. Data saved on these stations’ temp storage directories is erased daily – work you save directly on these stations will be lost.

Owen has one creativity station which includes a scanner, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, ArcGIS software, and all the programs found on the other workstations. This station is also on first-come first-served basis, but people who need the scanner or other unique software will be given precedence. This station is the computer pod closest to the main entrance.

Owen Library does not provide training with computer software. Print copies of How to do everything with Adobe Acrobat 8 and Photoshop CS3 for Dummies are available for use in the first floor Reference area, as well as various GIS help books available for checkout.