WiFi in libraries
The Museums Libraries & Archives Council (MLA) released a report (PDF) at the end of last week, looking at the take-up of wireless networks in public libraries in England;
“A report launched today from the MLA and WiFi specialist RegenerateIT anticipates that by 2009 half of all libraries will offer some form of WiFi (wireless technology). The report estimates that there are currently about 23 per cent of library services delivering WiFi with 42 per cent of library services planning to offer WiFi in the next financial year. Benefits of WiFi in libraries include more flexible use of space – particularly important given the limited space in many rural areas – and increased availability of library PCs, allowing a greater total number of users to benefit from IT access in the library.”
I continue to be bemused by the number of commercial organisations that fail (unlike Talis!) to provide some form of network access to visitors. I could name a plethora of big organisations in London and elsewhere that set great store by their meeting facilities and the quality of their biscuits, yet fail to let visitors onto any sort of network for ’security’ reasons. Erm… Locate a spare telephone socket, get your phone company to ADSL-ify it, and stick a wireless router on it. Visitors get online without going anywhere near your precious network, it costs next to nothing, and the busy are (perhaps) more likely to ‘give up’ a day for your meeting!
So. If the place you’re visiting won’t let you online, and the coffee shop at the railway station is too expensive (or an unclaimable expense), I’m sure many travellers would turn with gratitude to a nearby public library (or its car park) for Net relief - especially if they could be reasonably certain that any library would offer the capability.
One topic that the report does not appear to cover, but that I’ve come across as an issue more than once, is that of electricity. As we all know, laptop batteries drain depressingly quickly whilst connected to wireless networks, and it’s often essential to wire up to power in order to benefit from wireless communication. Yet more than one library of my acquaintance refuses to allow patrons to plug their own electrical devices into the library’s power supply, apparently because they have not been PAT tested. So you can use our network, but we’re not letting you have our electricity.
Hmm. A barrier to take-up, or a quirk of the over-zealous administrator?
This picture of an electrical socket from the 1940s was taken in London by Dave Arquati, and is available on Flickr with a Creative Commons licence. I hope the picture wasn’t taken in a London library.
