Computers and Software » Library West » UF Libraries

Software in Library West

UF Academic Technology (AT) manages all of the public computers in Library West, giving students access to the very extensive list of software available at all of the AT computing labs.

There are approximately 200 general use computers for student use throughout Library West, available on a first come, first served basis.
The majority of the computers are located in the 3rd floor InfoCommons, but you can also find about 15 computers on the 1st floor and approximately 30 on the 2nd floor.
On the 2nd floor, near the southeast stairwell, there is a bank of 6 iMacs, available on a first come, first served basis.
If you have questions about where to find any of the computers in Library West, please visit one of the service desks.

Every computer in Library West has a program installed that wipes all of the data from the machine after users logoff.
Unfortunately, if you are not saving your work to a flash drive, email, or a cloud storage account, and the computer happens to crash (requiring a restart), you will lose all of your work.

No, we have no way of recovering your work or data after a computer has been restarted. So please! Save your work regularly!

No, after you logoff the computers in Library West, the software wipes all the data from the machines. We have no way of recovering your paper.

If you don’t have a USB Drive with you, we highly suggest regularly saving a copy of your work to a cloud program such as the UF M Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. That way, if the computer happens to crash and has to restart, you will only lose work you have done since your last save.
You could also stop and regularly email yourself a copy of the latest version of what you are working on. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than losing everything.

UF Apps is a free service available to all UF students and it has “M Drive” storage that allows you to save documents and files on the go. You can access those documents from any browser and most mobile devices.

You might also consider signing up for free online storage through a company like Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. Most of those companies will let you save a few GB of data for free and allow you to access your account/files through any browser.

The UF Bookstore has an Office Supplies vending machine in Library West. It is located on the south side of second floor, next to the Print Release Station. There are usually USB drives for sale in that machine, which accepts both Gator1 and credit cards.

Please don’t forget you must comply with all local, state, and federal laws in addition to UF policies. Visit UF’s Acceptable Use policy for more details.