Find a public computer

student at a bank of computers
Students work near a bank of computers in Moffitt Library. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small for the UC Berkeley Library)

About computer use in the libraries

Computers with access to library resources and the internet are available in all campus libraries. Below are usage guidelines for university community members and the public. 

UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff

  • Word processing and other desktop applications may be found on public PCs in the libraries (requires CalNet ID). See below for list. 
  • Access to the UC Berkeley Virtual Lab with support for SPSS and Stata statistical analysis packages.
  • If you use your CalNet ID to login to a public computer, you must log out when you are finished.
  • You may save articles to a USB drive.
  • Pay for printing with your Cal 1 Card.
  • Scanning to email, cloud storage, and USB drive is free.
  • For best results, use Firefox to open a PDF found in bCourses.

General public

  • You have research access to library catalogs, licensed databases, and websites in the .edu, .gov, .org domains and selected .com sites.
  • You have access to email hosted on .edu, .gov, .org, and .com domains.
  • You may save articles to a USB drive.
  • Pay for printing with a Cal 1 Guest Card. Request one from a public service desk, or the Copy Center. Add funds via the Guest Card site.
  • Scanning to email, cloud storage, and USB drive is free.

Wi-Fi in the libraries

  • UC Berkeley students use eduroam to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. 

  • Visitors use Berkeley-Visitor to connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. Berkeley-Visitor allows users to access their email and the internet, but does not allow access to licensed library resources. 

Wireless access to the internet and printing from personal devices are available in all campus libraries. For more information see:

Technical assistance with Wi-Fi

  • Student Technology Service Desk
  • Faculty, staff, and visitors can contact Campus Shared Services (phone: 510-664-9000 > select 1 for IT support > select 1 for telephone and network support > select 2 for data and network support).
  • Campus posting of known network issues or outages.

Laptops in the libraries

  • UC Berkeley students may borrow laptops and other electronic devices from the Library.
  • Phone chargers are available for checkout at the Circulation Desk in Doe Library.
  • There are Android and Apple Lightning USB wall chargers with cables available for checkout to UC Berkeley students at the Doe Library Circulation Desk and the Engineering Library Circulation Desk.
    • The loan period is two hours with no renewal or overnight.
    • Students must present their Cal1 ID card to borrow.
    • See Library charges and fines for replacement and overdue charges.
  • UC Berkeley students should register and configure their laptop to use the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol service to connect to the internet via a network jack.
  • Printing from a laptop or mobile device is available from all campus libraries for patrons with a Cal 1 Card. See the guide for more details. If you have a guest card, printing is only available from a public workstation computer.

Software on public computers

Many UC Berkeley libraries provide the following word processing and desktop applications on public computers (CalNet ID required).

Microsoft applications available

  • Access
  • Edge
  • Excel
  • OneNote
  • Outlook
  • PowerPoint
  • Publisher
  • Word

Adobe Creative Cloud is available and includes

  • Adobe Acrobat DC
  • Adobe Bridge 2021
  • Adobe Creative Cloud
  • Adobe Digital Editions
  • Adobe Illustrator 2021
  • Adobe Lightroom
  • Adobe Photoshop 2021

Additional applications

  • 7-Zip
  • ArcGIS Desktop
  • ArcGIS Pro
  • Citrix Workspace
  • Google Chrome
  • iTunes
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Notepad++
  • PuTTY
  • QGIS
  • R for Windows
  • RStudio
  • Safari
  • VLC media player
  • WinSCP
  • Wolfram Mathematica
  • UC Berkeley Virtual Lab with support for SPSS and Stata statistical analysis packages