In the last few years, college classrooms have seen exponential growth in portable computing. Why takes notes with a pen and paper when you can tote your MacBook to lecture? Bonus reddit time, right? To this old fogey, college classrooms and libraries were sparsely populated with personal laptops. But nowadays, who isn’t toting a computer (or tablet) with them around campus?

Philadelphia’s Drexel University knows that everyone needs a portable computing option when they’re studying on campus. But what about those students who don’t want to lug their personal computer around with them?

To help out students, Drexel has unveiled a MacBook vending machine on campus. It sits in the University’s Hagerty Library and allows students, faculty, and staff to “check out” a MacBook for free, for five hours at a time – as long as they sport the proper Drexel ID of course.

The vending machine is open 24/7 and is entirely self-service. It contains a maximum of 12 MacBooks.

Drexel says they’re “providing a solution to students who don’t want to carry a laptop while walking late at night from their dorm or off-campus housing to the library.”

If this vending machine proves to be a success, Drexel says they’ll possibly add others in other areas around campus. Apparently, they’re weighing iPad vending machines as well.

[Drexel News Blog]