Residence Halls Association movie offices opened Wednesday with the launch of a new online movie rental system called Lending And Management Program, or LAMP.

The program requires students to register online at rha.msu.edu/LAMP to rent movies.

Once registered, student accounts will be available online and movie office employees will be able to take down the students' information electronically when they check out movies. Previously, information was written down.

The new LAMP system also will allow users to check the availability of movies, see their rental histories, change their accounts and request and rate movies online.

"It will allow us to manage all aspects of movie renting," said Tom Wolf, computer science senior and RHA's director of technology. "That makes it easier for everybody."

About 3,000 students signed up for movie rental contracts last year, and about 590 students have signed up since LAMP was pre-launched Sept. 1, Wolf said.

Another feature of LAMP is e-mail alerts that will be sent to movie renters to remind them about movie due dates and the availability of requested movies.

Although psychology sophomore Shamidah Wyden hasn't rented from RHA before, the new program has her considering stopping by the RHA movie office in the Brody Complex, where she lives.

"It sounds convenient," she said.

Before LAMP, RHA movie offices used the commercial movie rental program VideoTrace, but it was difficult to use and didn't live up to the needs of movie offices, Wolf said.

The VideoTrace program had been used since the 1980s, when the RHA movie rental service began, but could not compile reports about late fees and the popularity of movies that the office needs, said Adam Raezler, political theory senior and director of RHA movie office.

"It was not user-friendly," Raezler.

The new system will make rental information readily available to movie office officials, which would also help handle financial calculations more easily, said Wolf, who developed the program.

"I developed it from scratch for our movie offices specifically," he said, adding he spent 200 hours during the summer developing LAMP.

RHA members tested LAMP during the summer on security features and looked into changes to be made, without encountering any technical problems, Raezler said.

RHA movie offices are open from 7-11 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, and 5-11 p.m., Thursday through Saturday.

Any undergraduate students living on-campus can rent movies from the movie offices for free.