[Publib] "Serious" internet users versus "entertainment" users

[Houghton, Sarah]

The "x hours per day, for everyone, no matter what they're doing" solution has worked well for the libraries I've worked for and have talked to who do the same thing.  It's an equitable way to distribute a high-demand resource, our public computers, without placing value judgments on what people are doing.  That explanation also has successfully calmed down many an upset patron whose "online dating" for whatever reason takes priority in his mind over another patron's use of online games.
 
If you walk down the "extra time for research" road, not only do you get people playing the system, you have to now define research.  If I'm using IMDB to look at movie trailers, is that research?  How about looking for a bride overseas?  How about looking for airline tickets?  It's a slippery slope, and hard to define.  And without a clear definition, you're opening yourself up to complaints from users yet again.
 
Sarah Houghton
Information and Web Services Manager, San Mateo County Library (CA)

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: Anne Killheffer [mailto:anne at stratford.lib.ct.us] 
	Sent: Wed 6/28/2006 10:47 AM 
	To: publib at webjunction.org 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [Publib] "Serious" internet users versus "entertainment" users
	
	
	Now that it is summer, the number of young teenagers who are spending the day at
	the library has skyrocketed. We have ten internet computers which are almost
	always booked all the time. We have software that ends each session after 30 or 60 minutes if others are waiting, so your time on the computer comes to an end automatically.
	 
	The computer users who are trying to write a resume or research a term paper are annoyed, and I think rightly so, when they have to give up their computer to someone who wants to check myspace. 
	 
	I can't think of a clever solution. We can't (and we don't want to) prohibit people from using myspace, watching Youtube, writing emails to their friend who is actually sitting at the next computer....But I feel we have some kind of greater responsibility to serve people who are using us as a resource to find work or further their education.
	 
	Limited computer time to two hours a day seems like it would penalize everyone. Giving longer sessions to people who are doing research or looking for work would work for about one day, when everybody realized that all they have to do to get a longer session is tell us they are doing research.
	 
	Anyone have a solution that cuts through the Gordian knot? 
	 
	Anne Killheffer
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 
	 


Reference Librarian
Stratford Library Association
2203 Main St., Stratford, CT 06615
 
203-385-4164
anne at stratford.lib.ct.us
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