An interesting thing happened today (or maybe not so interesting) with regard to the internet here in the library, and the policy of only having webmail accessible from one computer (for a $2.60/half hour charge).
A lot of the people that use our PCs use them for internet research and typing up assignments, and i would say that a few of these people don't have internet access at home. So today a couple of school-aged girls booked time on the PCs to type up assignments, which is fine. Except that all of the research one of the girls had done was accessible only via email, or in other words, she had emailed herself all of her research either from home or school. To access this she would have had to access her email (for $2.60), then dump it onto a usb drive then go to the other computers. Now, this isn't really a major hassle (the girl ended up going home to finish her assignment) but it highlights the different ways that the internet and email is being used, and how quickly these changes happen.
For me, emailing of files is pretty essential. The computers at TAFE are constantly being infected by viruses and therefore the only way to get files out of the TAFE network is to email.
So, maybe libraries need to have a rethink about internet policy. Not that the email policy is a bad one, but the way the internet is used is changing, and libraries need to change with it. Just sayin'.
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