June 14th, 2008 Brian Herzog
The phone rings, and a male patron asks:
Patron: Hello, do you, I, have you got, um, wifey, at the library?
Me: Ah, I’m sorry, could you repeat that please?
Patron: Is wifey, at the library?
Me: Well, I don’t know, but if you describe her, I can walk around and look for her.
Patron: What?
Me: We don’t have a paging system, so I’ll have to walk around to check and see if she’s here.
Patron: She? No, I mean wifey. For my computer. Can I use wifey access at the library?
Me: [pause] Oh, yes, we do have wi-fi access here…
…and I went on to describe what we offer. The patron wasn’t nearly as entertained by this misunderstanding as I was - in fact, I think he thought I was an idiot. Oh well; at least we eventually straightened it out.
When he came in later that day, I was able to help him connect his laptop to the library’s wireless network, so that may have restored his faith in librarian competency.
Regardless, I’m going to take advantage of Jessamyn’s incredibly timely post about better publicizing library services (not to mention linking to them so patrons can find local wireless access when the library is closed).
See Also
Posted under Library, Reference Question, Technology | 2 Comments »
February 28th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Over the two years I’ve worked at my library, I’ve seen an increasing number of patrons bringing in their own laptops. We’ve offered wireless access and many years, but now we’re offering just a little bit more.
In addition to work tables in the library, we also have a number of study carrels for people to use. The tables we purchased were designed with both power plugs and ethernet jacks built into them, but the study carrels were not. Since the study carrels were near walls that had jacks, we thought that was good enough.
However, the arrangement of the carrels (which are two little cubicles arranged back to back) meant that one patron had easy access to the plug, while the other had to interrupt the first patron and loop wires over the walls to get access.
We thought we could do better than this, and set about checking our vendors and the internet for purpose-built after-market power boxes, that had both AC power and an ethernet jack - and that were low-profile enough to not encroach on the desk space. We found some, but most were $200+, which was too much. So instead, we built our own.
Using pieces and parts from the hardware store and Radio Shack, we made four boxes, one for each carrel, and each box had two power plugs and one internet jack. The pieces are all common and low-tech, so assembling them was no problem. And, not including ethernet cables (which we already had), they cost about $25 each.
So now, for a very low price, patrons can use their laptops with or without a wireless card, and with or without their battery power (as well as charge their cell phone or power some other device) and not have to drape cords over another patron.
See photos: before, after, and a close up of a box.
That’s one small step for the library, one giant leap for the patron who kept asking us why we didn’t have outlets in the carrels.
Tags: carrel, carrels, jacks, libraries, Library, plugs, power, public, study, table, tables, wireless See Also
Posted under Library, Technology | 3 Comments »
