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

[Donna Scanlon]

We also limit Internet users to 1 hour per day. We have two additional
computers that are word processing only, and a 1 hour time limit is only
imposed if someone is waiting or has signed up for a specific time.  

 

Donna

 

  _____  

From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org]
On Behalf Of Anne Killheffer
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 1:48 PM
To: publib at webjunction.org
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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