Library Computer Lab Rivalry

Immediately after class when we had the lecture that dealt with public goods and rivalry and exclusion, I went to the library and go to witness these concepts first hand. I always go to the business library computer lab between classes on Tuesdays to get some homework done. The computers in this lab would be considered common resource goods. Though not just any student can use these computers, they still aren’t non excludable. Any business student is welcome to use these computers at any given time, so from the stand point of all business students, these computers are non excludable; anyone in the college of business can use them. However they are extremely rivalrous, especially at this time of the quarter when work starts piling up. There are only a certain amount of computers in the lab, so though anyone can use them, not everyone can manage to find an open computer when they want one. Someone else using the computers greatly affects my ability to use them.

This made me think about the idea of highest value. Everyone wanting to use the computers at this time would have different values to using them. Someone who is in, for example, an accounting class and has to print out their memo by the end of the period to turn it in would have an extremely high value for a computer. Someone who needs to do work on an important assignment due by the end of the quarter would not have as high of a value, but still a relatively high value compared to someone who is using the computers to waste time between classes and checking Facebook. However the value a person has for using the computers does not play a role in deciding who gets to use the computers. The computers simply go to the people who get there first.

This brings up the issue of seeing if there is a way these computers can get into the hands of those who value them most at the time. The main solution that is already in effect is that of a sort of social pressure. If people walk into the lab at the same time and there is only one open computer, people will use social pressure to get the computer if they can. They might try to guilt the other person by saying something about how urgently they need this computer, hoping the other person doesn’t need it just as urgently. Or maybe they will try saying that what they need the computer for will only take a short amount of time so they should be allowed to use the open computer, because if another one hasn’t opened up by the time they are done using it, the second person can have it. Guilt also works as a social pressure for people who are already using computers. If someone walks in and no computers are open but they look worried and agitated like they really need a computer, people who are using one only to check Facebook or sports news may feel bad enough to get off the computer and offer it up.

Or maybe there is some sort of government action that can be taken. In this case, the government would be the faculty in charge of the computer labs. If the idea is to get the computers into the hands of those who value them most, maybe each student coming into the lab needs to verify that they are using the computers for a purpose that is not a waste of the resource when someone else could be using it. It is fairly difficult for anyone to guarantee that the people who are using the computers are the ones who value them the most. The only way that this could really be achieved would be to create a market for the computers in the computer lab and make the students using them trade something for the use of them, such as money or something of value to the students. If this were the case then students using the computers would be the ones who really need them, since they would be the ones willing to give up the most. However since it is a library and all of the students are enrolled in the college, it is fairly unrealistic to charge students to use the facilities.

Solving the problem is not an easy thing to do and I don’t really know what would be the best solution, but I thought it was interesting to see right away the idea of rivalry and exclusion and how it really is evident almost everywhere.