At Colorado College Special Collections, we do have wireless access in the
reading room -- BUT -- and I would guess this is true in many places --
researchers can't just sit down and get access. They have to go through a
three-part process with our Information Technology department,
reconfiguring something-or-other so that our databases will be accessible.
Often, it turns out they don't have the right kind of wireless card.
Other options for internet access in our reading room include: borrowing
the reading room computer at the public desk (this works well for short
daily email-checking); plugging into a port (this, too, requires
registration with I.T., but is a fairly easy process); or borrowing a
wireless-compatible laptop from the library.
None of these are ideal, but I understand from the I.T. folks that open
wireless would be a disaster for the college, security-wise.
Jessy Randall, Curator and Archivist
Colorado College Special Collections
1021 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903
phone 719-389-6668, email jrandall@coloradocollege.edu
Everett Wilkie <ewilkie@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Being one of these researchers who lives and dies by his laptop
computer,
> I am often frustrated that there is no Internet access for an individual
> researcher's machine in most reading rooms. Most places do have at least
> one computer for public use that has Internet access, but there is no
> real way to easily transfer any information one finds to one's own
machine. I
> am thinking especially of ESTC records and other databases that hold
> information about books and of bibliographies, many of which are now
> on-line. It is somewhat frustrating not to be able to compare on the fly
> what those sources have to offer to the book in hand on my own machine.