Matthew Kelly
-REDACTED-
-REDACTED-

November 07, 2016


[Insert Inside Address Here]


To Whom It May Concern:


Over the course of the last two years I have been utilizing the campus library's computer center to aid in my studies and research, during which time the number of students utilizing these facilities has steadily increased, which has reduced the time available for each individual to use these resources.  As such, I would like to propose a solution that will allocate time more evenly amongst those students who wish to use the computer center.


Although the most obvious solution to this problem would be simply add more computers to the center,  budgetary and space constraints make this solution quite infeasible, therefore other solutions must be found.  As more and more students use the computer center to complete their assignments, time is going to become an ever more scarce resource.  One of the best ways to manage scarce resources is rationing, or limiting the amount of resource in question available to each consumer so that all consumers can get the maximum available amount, and several software packages exist to limit the amount of time a user has access to a system.  This solution is limited, however, in that there are a finite number of hours in the day, and this will always be a limiting factor to the number of students who can access these resources on any given day.


With that in mind, I hereby propose that ASU take a two part approach to solving this problem.  Part one would utilize free and open source software such as LibKi ( http://libki.org/ ) to ration the time users have access to the system, allow users to reserve a system for a particular time, and alert users when a lab computer becomes available.  While this would begin to alleviate the problem of congestion within the computer center, it would only be a stop gap measure, as available computers, hours of operation and available space are all finite resources and can only be shared so far.  Since personal computers have become commonplace among our students in recent years, part two of this proposal is to share access to the resources of the computer center at the network level.  This would ensure that students can access these resources from anywhere that they can access the university's network at any time.  This approach is as scalable as the University's network itself, would meet student demand at the same pace and finally would reduce the need for physical access to the computer center.


In closing, computer resources within the library are an extremely valuable, and limited resource which need expansion and constant maintenance, and these issues need addressing at the soonest possible opportunity.  Should you choose not to accept the proposal outlined herein, I must strongly urge that you implement a long term solution to this ever present and growing problem.


Sincerely,




Matthew T. Kelly