LSU has received funding through the CARES Act for the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) with almost $700,000 going toward the purchase of equipment to make available for students to check out from the library. Now, students can choose from hundreds of laptops in addition to webcams, hotspots for use at home, HDMI cables, earbuds and calculators to borrow from the library at no cost to them. The additional equipment will add to what is already available at the library through the Gear to Geaux service.

The purpose of the grant is to help compensate for the increased need that students have for personal education devices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Students can check out the devices for time periods ranging from 12 hours to up to the entire semester for many of the laptops. "Equipping students with the resources needed to better advance their engagement and success in academics is powerful when combined with the passion to work hard. By offering our LSU community access to these technologies, we can connect with educators and other collaborators needed to secure a promising future," said Xander du Plooy, an LSU senior and student senator from Hammond, Louisiana.

For questions about the equipment, see https://www.lib.lsu.edu/services/borrowing/gear or visit the Libraries Access Services unit in room 241 in the LSU Library with a current LSU Student ID to borrow.