Short Term Laptop Checkout (4-hour Checkout)
Borrow an Apple Macintosh or Dell laptop for up to 4 hours for use anywhere on campus. Laptops come with general use software (MS Office, Web Browsers, Zoom and select Adobe software). In most cases, the laptop security software and configuration does not allow for additional software to be installed by the user.
Students can borrow a short-term laptop for up to 4 hours. Laptop checkout is on a first-come, first-served basis from the Research Commons service desk on the first floor of the Library.
Price
While this is a free service, you are financially responsible if a laptop is damaged, lost or stolen. You will also be charged late fees if you return a laptop late. Please read the Laptop Checkout Agreement for more details.
Late Fees / Replacement Costs
- $3 per hour (or any fraction thereof) for the laptop
- $1 per hour (or any fraction thereof) for the power adapter
- Damaged, lost, non-returned or stolen power adapters will be assessed a replacement cost of up to $100.
- Damaged, lost, non-returned or stolen laptops will be assessed a replacement cost of up to $2,000.
Location
Extended Laptop Checkout (Semester Checkout)
Students enrolled for Fall 2025 courses can request a loaner laptop for the Fall 2025 semester by submitting the student laptop request form.
Description
Students enrolled for the current semester at SFSU can submit the request form above for a Extended Laptop Checkout. Extended laptop checkout is for the semester, and all laptops must be returned at the end of the semester.
The laptops have general use software (MS Office, Web Browsers, and works with Zoom). They have Adobe software Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere, Audition. In most cases, the laptop security software and configuration does not allow for additional software to be installed by the user.
After submitting the form, Library staff will review your request, and contact you to complete the checkout process. Once the checkout process is complete, the library will schedule a time to pick up the laptop at the library.
Laptops are available on a first-come, first-served basis; however, due to limited supply, if you already have access to a laptop or desktop computer, we request that you not fill out this request form, in order to provide more access for other students without access to a laptop or desktop computer.
Need a computer just for the day? Short-term laptop checkout, up to four hours, may be available at the Research Commons help desk on the first floor of the Library. Call (415) 338-1854 to learn more.
Price
While this is a free service, you are financially responsible if a laptop is damaged, lost or stolen. You will also be charged late fees if you return a laptop late. Please read the Laptop Checkout Agreement for more details.
Late Fees / Replacement Costs
- $15 per day (or any fraction of a day) the laptop is not returned after the day it is due.
- $5 per day (or any fraction of a day) the power adapter is not returned after the day it is due.
- Damaged, lost, non-returned or stolen power adapter will be assessed a replacement cost of up to $100.
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Damaged, lost, non-returned or stolen laptops will be assessed a replacement cost of up to $2,000.
Blocks
If you owe $50 or more on your Library account, then you won't be able to borrow a laptop or any other equipment from the Library. Your account may also be blocked if you have violated the terms of the Laptop Checkout Agreement.
Get Help with an Extended Checkout Laptop
For questions or technical help with a Library laptop, email service@sfsu.edu with “Library Laptop” in the subject line.
Pre-Installed Mac and Windows Software
| 7-Zip | Windows | 7-Zip is a free and open-source file archiver, a utility used to place groups of files within compressed containers known as "archives". |
| Abobe Bridge | Windows | Centralize your creative assets. |
| Adobe Acrobat DC | Mac, Windows | Create, edit, and sign PDF documents and forms. |
| Adobe Audition | Mac, Windows | Adobe Audition is a comprehensive toolset that includes multitrack, waveform, and spectral display for creating, mixing, editing, and restoring audio content. This powerful audio workstation is designed to accelerate video production workflows, audio finishing, and deliver a polished mix with pristine sound. |
| Adobe Illustrator | Mac, Windows | Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard design app that lets you capture your creative vision with shapes, color, effects, and typography. Work across desktop and mobile devices and quickly create beautiful designs that can go anywhere — print, web and apps, video and animations, and more. |
| Adobe InCopy | Mac | Adobe InCopy lets copywriters and editors style text, track changes, and make simple layout modifications to a document while designers work on the same document simultaneously in Adobe InDesign — all without overwriting each other’s contributions. |
| Adobe InDesign | Mac | Adobe InDesign is the industry-leading layout and page design software for print and digital media. InDesign has everything you need to create and publish books, digital magazines, eBooks, posters, interactive PDFs, and more. |
| Adobe Media Encoder | Mac, Windows | Adobe Media Encoder functions as an encoding engine for Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Audition, Adobe Character Animator, and Adobe Prelude. You can also use Adobe Media Encoder as a stand-alone encoder. |
| Adobe Photoshop | Mac, Windows | Adobe Photoshop is a software application for photo editing, image manipulation, and retouching for numerous image and video file formats. |
| Adobe Premiere Pro | Mac, Windows | Adobe Premiere Pro is a video editing application primarily used for producing high-quality videos across various industries. |
| Anaconda | Mac, Windows | Anaconda is an open source data science and artificial intelligence distribution platform for Python and R programming languages. |
| Box Drive | Mac, Windows | Box Drive is a desktop app from Box that allows you to access all your files in Box from your computer without needing to download or sync those files first. This gives users the ability to work with these files that are saved in the cloud just as if they were on your desktop through Finder on your Mac or File Explorer on Windows. |
| Central Access Reader | Windows | Central Access Reader (CAR) is a free, open source, text-to- speech application designed specifically for students with print-related disabilities. CAR reads Word Documents and pasted text using the built-in voices installed on your computer. CAR can also read math symbols if the Word document is created with MathType software, and can export documents to mp3 files. |
| Dragon Naturally Speaking | Windows* | Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech recognition software package. NOTE: Not available on all PC's. Installation available upon request. Please contact AT for more information. |
| Fusion (JAWS/ZoomText) | Windows | Fusion provides access to JAWS and ZoomText. JAWS is the world's most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing screen content or navigating with a mouse. JAWS provides speech and Braille output for the most popular computer applications on your PC. ZoomText is a screen magnifier for Microsoft Windows. |
| GarageBand | Mac | GarageBand is a software application by Apple that allows users to create music or podcasts. |
| Google Chrome | Mac, Windows | Web browser. |
| iMovie | Mac | iMovie is a free video editing application made by Apple. This application includes a range of video effects and tools like color correction and image stabilization, but is designed to be accessible to users with little or no video editing experience. |
| Keynote | Mac | Keynote is a presentation software application developed as a part of the iWork productivity suite by Apple Inc. |
| Kurzwweil 3000 | Windows* | Kurzweil 3000 is an educational technology, or assistive technology, which provides a reading, writing and study platform. NOTE: Not available on all PC's. Installation available upon request. Please contact AT for more information. |
| Library WiFi printer | Mac, Windows | Connect and print to SFSU Library devices. |
| Microsoft Access | Windows | Microsoft Access is a database management system from Microsoft that combines the relational Access Database Engine with a graphical user interface and software-development tools. |
| Microsoft Excel | Mac, Windows | Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet editor developed by Microsoft, featuring calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables. |
| Microsoft Office | Mac, Windows | Microsoft Office, MS Office, or simply Office, is an office suite and family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. Includes: Excel, PowerPoint, Word. |
| Microsoft PowerPoint | Mac, Windows | Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, developed by Microsoft. |
| Microsoft Word | Mac, Windows | Microsoft Word is a word processing program developed by Microsoft. |
| Mozilla Firefox | Mac, Windows | Web browser. |
| Notepad++ | Windows | Notepad++ (sometimes npp or NPP) is a text and source code editor for use with Microsoft Windows. It supports tabbed editing, which allows working with multiple open files in one window. |
| Numbers | Mac | Numbers is a spreadsheet application developed by Apple Inc. as part of the iWork productivity suite. |
| Pages | Mac | Pages is a word processing program developed by Apple Inc. that is part of the iWork productivity suite. |
| PuTTy | Windows | Terminal emulator and SSH client. |
| R | Mac, Windows | R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. The R language is widely used among statisticians and data miners for developing statistical software and data analysis. |
| R Studio | Mac, Windows | RStudio is an integrated development environment (IDE) for R. It includes a console, syntax-highlighting editor that supports direct code execution, as well as tools for plotting, history, debugging and workspace management. |
| SPSS | Mac, Windows | The IBM SPSS software platform offers advanced statistical analysis, a vast library of machine learning algorithms, text analysis, open source extensibility, integration with big data and seamless deployment into applications. |
| VLC media player | Mac, Windows | VLC media player is a free and open-source, portable, cross-platform media player software and streaming media server developed by the VideoLAN project. |
| WinSCP | Windows | File transfer client for FTP & SCP. |
| Zoom Workplace | Mac, Windows | Video and web conferencing service. All faculty, staff and students have the ability to create and join Zoom meetings. Zoom is available on any device with an Internet connection, including Mac, Windows, Linux and mobile devices. Zoom meetings can accommodate up to 300 people per meeting at a time. |