Why No Library WiFi?

September 8, 2005 7:30 PM

Considering the great benefit it would provide, what exactly is the barrier which prevents most community libraries in the U.S. from offering WiFi to complement their existing free hard-wired internet access?

I love libraries, and consider them the best thing any community can offer. The only thing that I've found that is missing to really bring most community (that is, non-academic) libraries fully into place as the hub of information access, especially in small towns, is the lack of WiFi. Clearly it must not be as simple as setting up a home wireless network, which is simple enough that my 9 year old can do it. What would need to be done, and why isn't it happening? Is it a question of economics, or might the lack of progress be related to the Gates Foundation grants that made it possible for many libraries to have computers and internet access to begin with?

posted by Dreama to computers & internet (24 comments total)

After working for a library, I can say with confidence that one of (many) reasons is fear. The library I worked for was terribly afraid of new technology. We had a nice DOS-based card catalog system that worked with a wand scanner. One day they decided to replace it with Windows 95-based software. When they did that, several quirks developed, which they put up with, out of fear of messing with the computers. One day I fixed the problems with some cute little batch files, but was soon accused of "hacking" and "breaking" the computers. From that day on, even though I removed my fixes, everything that went wrong was automatically my fault.

The only reason they got the Windows 95 system was because the company stopped developing the DOS version.

(though, in my opinion, the DOS version was great)
posted by odinsdream at 7:42 PM on September 8, 2005

I imagine there's also a security issue.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 7:42 PM on September 8, 2005 [1 favorite has favorites]

Well, justified fear...
posted by odinsdream at 7:45 PM on September 8, 2005

Liability, perhaps. It's a lot easier to lock down a bunch of networked PCs than it is to prevent someone with their own laptop and software from doing something bad with a free, anonymous internet connection.
posted by wakko at 7:46 PM on September 8, 2005

Might this have something to do with the Children's Internet Protection Act? There's been some discussions about this. Sure, there's nothing stopping them from putting filters on internet access provided via WiFi, but since they need to be able to turn this filtering off in certain cases, it becomes very difficult to ensure that no children are accessing "questionable" content.

Hey, I'm not so keen on this whole filtering thing, but I can think the inclusion of wireless access adds a new layer of complexity.
posted by bachelor#3 at 7:48 PM on September 8, 2005

s/I can think/I think/
posted by bachelor#3 at 7:48 PM on September 8, 2005

It's mostly a matter of inertia.

Even small libraries could be capable of buying a linksys box and getting someone to set it up for them. However, there are common concerns, such as liability, control, objectionable content, tech support, and so on. Libraries, especially small ones, are not routinely inclined to take risks or move agressively, and are not likely to charge into what they perceive, not deliriously, to be a potentially sticky policy issue.

Only 18% of US public libraries currently offer wifi, but another 20% are planning to add it this year.

Shorter: Give the little guys time. You're lucky most (99.6%) of us finally took the plunge and got an internet connection.
posted by ulotrichous at 7:51 PM on September 8, 2005

Move to Vegas, baby. Our awesome public library system is pleased to offer WiFi at all urban branches.
posted by Liffey at 7:53 PM on September 8, 2005

Pretty sure the Philadelphia Free Libraries have wifi too.

We're hi-tech here. The books even have RFID chips in them.
posted by elisabeth r at 8:22 PM on September 8, 2005

Besides inertia and economics, there are historical reasons for libraries' typical reluctance to embrace new technology--we've been burnt before. For a minute there, folks were trying to convince libraries to move their entire collections onto microform. For a more recent example, consider the CD-ROMs, artifacts of a pre-internet era, that clog the shelves of my own public library. Or consider the eBook readers and Audible-cobranded-mp3-players that were all the rage among rich suburban public library systems a few years ago.

(Lengthy aside: Public libraries have tight budgets. What's more, they don't always have the most tech-savvy staff, especially in management/administrative positions (there are, of course, exceptions). I could make a decent argument that providing wireless access isn't the way to get the most bang for one's library budget buck, or a better argument that providing access only to folks with their own laptops (or not making them wait around for a limited number of public computers) is a kind of economic discrimination. I ramble, but my point is simply that not all the roadblocks are logistical ones.)
posted by box at 8:31 PM on September 8, 2005

(Also, here in Little Rock we've got wireless in five out of twelve branches, and we're planning to hook up the rest of 'em in the near future.)
posted by box at 8:33 PM on September 8, 2005

If I ran a library, I wouldn't want a bunch of laptop users who are only interested in free wireless taking up all its space. It's bad enough when you can't grab at a seat at a café because of the leeches who aren't even drinking anything! Damn kids.
posted by Eamon at 8:42 PM on September 8, 2005

Liability, perhaps. It's a lot easier to lock down a bunch of networked PCs than it is to prevent someone with their own laptop and software from doing something bad with a free, anonymous internet connection.

hardly an excuse. my university uses this software to restrict access to its wireless network exclusively to students. a library could use it to restrict access exclusively to cardholders.

Might this have something to do with the Children's Internet Protection Act? There's been some discussions about this. Sure, there's nothing stopping them from putting filters on internet access provided via WiFi, but since they need to be able to turn this filtering off in certain cases, it becomes very difficult to ensure that no children are accessing "questionable" content.

again, that's hardly an excuse. my library does not offer wifi, but in order to use the available desktops you first have to login with your library card number. since your card account has your name and age and whatnot stored in it, it determines whether or not your web surfing for the day gets routed through a filtering proxy. and in the event an underage patron needs access to a site wrongfully deemed "objectionable," the librarian at the tech desk can temporarily override the filter at their discretion.
posted by Ziggy Zaga at 8:56 PM on September 8, 2005

Paging jessamyn....
posted by Vidiot at 8:57 PM on September 8, 2005

As someone who has actively if not aggressively lobbied for wireless access in the libraries I've worked in, I think everyone has points that resonate. From my own perspective, these are what I see as the barriers out here in digital-divide land

don't see the need - the library that I work at right now doesn't see the need for it. I asked if they wanted me to put in a wireless node, at my expense, and they said "no, thanks" It's a middle class community, not a lot of laptops around. Of course one of the reasons there aren't more laptops around is because there isn't much free wifi. One of the local cafes just got it, we'll see if that changes anyone's mind. The public library I just finished working at got wifi three weeks after I left, after me hassling them about it for two solid years.

lack of tech savviness - out here most libraries got computers thanks to Gates Foundation grants and now, years later, have no support for them other than what the staff or the residents of the town have to offer. Some libraries have tech-savvy staff and run wifi nodes, most don't. Most have enough trouble keeping pop-ups and viruses off their computers [and this is in a region where many libraries still have dial-up, try downloading windows updates from THAT] and, in short, computers aren't fun for them. I work with 16 libraries in my region and sent out a letter two weeks ago offering to hook them up with wifi, and I have yet to get one response.

fear/oogy boogy issues - at the last VT public library I worked at, we had a librarian staff member who led tours in the library and pointed out the computers [we had 12, a really huge deal in Vermont, second largest public access in the state] saying "these are supposed to be used for research, but people just use them to play games...." Basically, he didn't get the memo about the Internet and wasn't well-prepped by management when the computers/Internet arrived, and basically was tech-hostile and allowed to be that way on the job. It was a poisonous atmosphere, but none of the staff but me were tech hobbyists and so didn't have an opposing viewpoint. It wasn't until I got there that all professional staff even had email addresses.

I talked to librarians in New Jersey systems who were basically forbidden from installing wireless nodes in their libraries due to fear of "hackers" and whatnot. Not that this isn't a justifiable issue, but it was basically being thrown up as a roadblock without any real data behind it. Some set up nodes on their own, but you had to really sort of ignore the rules to go out and do this. We see this sort of thing all the time in libraries -- public servants basically believing they know what "the public" wants, or worrying so much about dangers that they don't try to see the benefits.

Basically the hard thing about tech generally is that it doesn't work the same for everyone. This is not true for books in the same way. I have had librarians tell me that they didn't want to put the library catalog online because "What if the Internet is down?" Again, this is a valid concern, sort of, but it's like saying that we can't have the library open at night because if there were a power failure, we'd all be in the dark. It's small thinking, and a lot of it is being done by people who really learned computers on the job, get told a lot of lies by people trying to sell them computers, software and other technology, and they only want to invest in projects they can control. I call it the tyranny of the expert: librarians are so used to being experts that they can't take forays into areas where they would have to rely on someone else for advice.

Note to bachelor#3, actually having wifi in some ways makes CIPA easier to deal with for libraries because it can offer a very clear message about it, and then give all over-17 patrons the option to turn filtering off which is a real boon. Boston Public does this, they filter all machines inside the library but if you use their wifi, you can surf with filtering off. I believe the jury is still out on whether CIPA mandates filtering wifi as opposed to computers in the library that are owned by the library.

leadership - flat out, if your local or state library system is promoting wifi, you'll be looking into it, but most systems don't, or haven't reached a tipping point yet. I made a flip comment in a newspaper here about how I could get wifi into all the public libraries in the state [250+] for under 20K, and instead of seeing it as a challenge, local leadership saw it as an affront and got pretty peeved. At one of our libraries in the state, a wireless vendor runs a "wireless wednesday" where they have a wifi node in the library one day a week as a way of promoting his business. This is sort of a neat idea, but why isolate it to wednesday?

In any case, I could go on and on and have elsewhere but the general point is that the issues are complicated and the people with laptops and the people at the library are not groups that have historically overlapped in public libraries. Go to your public library and ask them why they don't have wireless. I'd be curious to see what they say.
posted by jessamyn at 9:13 PM on September 8, 2005

Jessamyn, I did ask at the small library up here in nowheresville where I am, and I got a blank look. As in *blink blink* blank. No comprehension whatsoever.

out here most libraries got computers thanks to Gates Foundation grants[...]Most have enough trouble keeping pop-ups and viruses off their computers

Ooooh, correlation? Could it be? I only jest halfway, the fact that I'm forced to use IE at the library makes me twitch something fierce.
posted by Dreama at 10:31 PM on September 8, 2005

Yeah I spend a lot of time going to the libraries in my service area with a CD full of Ad-Aware, Firefox, Spybot Search & Destroy and others, in addition to the two latest service packs for Win2K and WinNT. When you're dealing with staff who don't really grok the Internet [my last library director literally did not know what an Internet browser was] doing something like switching to Firefox confuses the patrons who ask questions of the staff. If the staff are prepared and informed, they can handle the situation, if they're not, it's better to live with pop-ups and virus fear than stepping outside of their comfort zone.

For many librarians, thinking about providing support to wireless access just seems like so much hell. Some of this is because they have a hard time setting boundaries with patrons. Boston Public, for example, gives you a sheet with configuration info. If the sheet can't help you get configured staff will not help you. This is sort of cold, but it makes a very clear line between what is and is not their responsibility with the wifi. Some of this is because they are afraid it will work, then it will break, then they will have to pay more money just to fix it. And some of it is just because -- and this is another library secret -- the library can't really become too popular or else it ceases to function well. So on the one hand libraries say "Why can't we get people in here?" and on the other hand, when they have too many people, they lament the crowding, the lines for the bathrooms, the noise.

Public libraries are very very mission driven and many of them, especially smaller libraries, have missions that talk about books, not about information. This is changing, but as you have noticed, not very quickly.
posted by jessamyn at 10:52 PM on September 8, 2005

I consider myself a barrier, in that I'd much rather my library buy books than pay for computer equipment, connectivity for that equipment, and someone to run the equipment.

But then, I also want librarians to shush patrons, and they don't do that anymore, so I'm probably regarded as an anachronism.
posted by madajb at 11:01 PM on September 8, 2005

The books even have RFID chips in them.

wow! I know this was a MASSIVE issue in SF when I was living there. They wanted to implement RFID in order to better track their books, but they were fearful that the PATRIOT act or something similar might mean that those RFIDs got really abused.

Meanwhile, internet access at SFPL main (unless something has changed in the last year) is really sorry. I mean, come fucking on, we're san francisco -- we should have wireless, or at least internet access. However, when I was living there (on unemployment, and thus, without broadband) san francisco main had only ONE table with live ethernet jacks, DESPITE the fact that EVERY table in the library was wired for it. This i would ascribe to most of the control issues listed above -- people can monitor your bandwidth and what you're doing if you're just sitting at a single table, but if you can go anywhere in the library and jack in, well...

ok, i have no salient points to finish that thought with.
posted by fishfucker at 12:04 AM on September 9, 2005

I was in SF last August and the main branch had Wi-Fi and quite a few tables with wired internet access.

(though there was a ridiculous rule about only using Wi-Fi for two hours at a time. I guess the policy was extended from the wired access without any thought. It wasn't enforced)
posted by cillit bang at 4:31 AM on September 9, 2005

The city of Austin does have wifi at all branches. I haven't tried to use it, but it would be surprising if they didn't--free wifi is part of the local culture (everyplace from titty bars to gas stations advertises it), and the city is also trying to make it available in city parks (despite the effort of some to outlaw municipal wireless).
posted by adamrice at 6:22 AM on September 9, 2005

I worked for a library for many years and the main obstacle to anything new is money. Libraries are one of the most strapped-for-cash places in a city, and it's very frustrating.
posted by agregoli at 8:45 AM on September 9, 2005

As an aside: hey Jessamyn! I had no idea you were on MeFi.

That said, her analysis about tech vs libraries is dead on. I'm an academic librarian, and have seen the same sorts of reactions to "new" technology as has been mentioned. There are a lot of librarians who are VERY wary of anything "new". That said, WiFi access is growing slowly at public libraries across the country, and the best thing to do is to ask for it at every library you visit. The more patron requests there are, the more ammunition that tech-savvy librarians have to discuss adding it as a service.
posted by griffey at 12:37 PM on September 9, 2005

Wireless is available at the main San Francisco Public Library as well as at many of its branches.

More info here.
posted by John at 12:40 PM on September 9, 2005