NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE
WHITE PINE PRESS
WE HEW TO THE LINE; LET THE CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY.
September 26, 2024
More Than Books, NMC Library Offers "Things"
Megan Thoreson
Staff Writer
Beginning in February 2023, NMC’s Library in the Student Innovation Center opened The Library of Things, which has rentable items available to any interested student currently enrolled at NMC.
Some items available are geared toward classes offered at NMC that students might prefer to rent rather than buy. Nursing students can rent amplified stethoscopes, while Audio and Digital tech can rent equipment and cables. The Library of Things also offers fun things like games, musical instruments, webcams, yarn, crochet hooks, and more. Art prints are also available for dorm students to rent to beautify their living spaces, with more things being added all the time.
Nicole Wenstrup MSI, Librarian and Archivist added “Students can request that certain items be added to the library of things, and after an official request and enough interest, we can add it!”
If any student has such a request, they can email library@nmc.edu to inquire.
In addition to the Library of Things, NMC’s Library also offers Chromebooks and Thinkpads for students to rent semester to semester.
“It is a goal of NMC to make sure students have the resources they need while they’re here and so much is online now,” Wenstrup said. In 2019 the college began offering laptops to students in need after partnering with Systems and LAN Management.
“Even in pre-pandemic times the college was purchasing Chromebooks to be used in classes. Once everything went virtual the need went up, and since then we have accumulated 68 laptops available for students to check out over a semester.” Nico Pandolfi MSI, librarian said.
Ten more Chromebooks will be added by next semester to accommodate the rising need for accessible technology here at NMC. The only downside to the rentable laptops is that they lack full functionality that personal computers have. Software, games, etc., cannot be downloaded while borrowing a library computer.