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…
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