Head Tale

Our genealogy class got out early today so that people could either work on assignments, do research or come down to LPL to vist the “London Room”, the library's local history room.  I'd seen the room briefly during our LPL tour in Public Libraries class but had a couple hours to kill before I had to be anywhere so decided to come down and look around a bit more in depth. 

I did that but have to admit I had an ulterior motive in coming down as well – I knew that LPL had launched a free wireless service in mid-October and hadn't had a chance to check it out yet so thought this was a good opportunity. 

So now I'm sitting in their reading lounge on the second floor (which is where they recommend as the best place to pick up a signal.  I started at a carrel in the stacks on the third but couldn't get connected so decided to do the proper thing and ask at the reference desk just like I learned in library school!)

I know how distracting clackety-clack can be in a classroom setting (even if I'm guilty of contributing to it myself sometimes) so I wonder if telling people to go to the quiet reading area in the library is the best solution.  But nobody's giving me the evil eye yet so I guess it's not as loud here as in a small classroom. 

One of my “can't wait for it to happen” ideas will be the day that some type of free, high-speed Internet access is available citywide in all major centres and preferably right across the country anywhere you might go – populated or not. (I think cell phones can do this but I'm talking about real, on your laptop with a full-sized keyboard and screen access rather than the thumb-buster and eye-strain inducer that is the cell phone.)

But my experiences with the free high speed being offered in Toronto was less than satisfactory (you need a cell phone to get access which I don't have – but my impression and what I've heard from others is that the speed is quite slow, even once you get on.)  so I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

In the meantime, I think libraries should have a role in making Internet access available to anyone in the country.  Most libraries already provide high speed access terminals so for the cost of an $50 wireless router, they could extend this service to anyone with a wireless-enabled device as well (although some libraries still seem to limit access to card-holding local patrons which is unfortunate.)

There's probably a good reason for this.  One of the concerns with providing Internet access which was raised at the LPL board meeting I attended at the end of September was with people using the access for illegal activities.

I am not a lawyer (although I play one at library school ) but my take is that the situation is similar to a service organization who maintains a bulletin board in a small community but who can't be held liable for any communications conducted via that bulletin board.  (Again, I am not a lawyer so that might just be something I picked up from an old episode of Street Legal.)

So yeah, I didn't need to enter a name or password or library barcode to get access to the Internet here at LPL.  Once I found the “hot spot”, I simply turned on my computer and was off.  Now, I'm off again…to search for the Anarchist Cookbook…