Author: Simon Perry
Library Computers Unavailable For Two Weeks
1:52 pm Monday, 12th April, 2010, Isle of Wight
ShortURL: http://wig.ht/27ww
Read More- Island-wide, Isle of Wight Council, Library, News, Online
The computers across the Isle of Wight’s libraries will be unavailable for the next two weeks, starting today.
The council says the idea is to improve computer software on public computers in libraries across the Island, making it simpler to make online bookings and reservations, as well as providing easier access to printing off documents in libraries.
Libraries Officer Rob Jones said “Users of our libraries which use the People’s Network will see improvements in the service provided as a result of the software upgrade as well as the opportunity of self service in five of our bigger libraries.”
“We apologise to customers who may be inconvenienced by not having access to the Internet in our libraries for the next fortnight, although I am sure many will appreciate the upgrade in service.”
Image: georgehotelling under CC BY-SA 2.0
Not the best of timings.
You would find it hard to avoid that there’s a general election coming up. You might also have noticed that these two weeks of no internet access are in the middle of the four weeks before the general election.
I know not many people have an interest in the election, but to cut off their access to online information in an election that is supposed to be the most online every smacks of horrible timing.
Isn’t it democratic right to be informed in the build up to an election?
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Theres plenty of other places you can access the internet. Not sure how much the library charges, but theres a lot of reasonable internet cafe style places around. people may have to go a little bit further, but its only for a couple of weeks.
As for a democratic right to be informed, there is plenty of TV coverage. Plenty of newspaper coverage. Anyone who is capable of listening to a TV or reading a paper can inform themselves and so keep their democratic rights intact.
Those library computers have needed upgrading for ages. I dont think the timing is any sort of coincidence unless its perhaps recognition that now we have some decent weather less people will be sat in librarys looking at screens.
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Where else are there computers for the public to use in Ventnor? I can only think of the community cafe in Albert Street on Saturday mornings. The Tapas bar has wifi but you need a laptop for that …
Mind last time I used the ones in the library they were something like £2.50 an hour and an enormous faff having to register to be able to use them. But that was two or three years ago, it may have got better.
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“cut off their access to online information in an election”
Never mind the election, what about access to VB?!
While I agree that the timing could be better, I’m not aware of a shortage of information about the election in every other medium. So much so, that I’m consuming less TV and radio lately, just to avoid it!
Time to get out a good book, perhaps – do the libraries still do those..?
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Hard to see how it can take so long.
And agree, the point of public access is to inform. You couldn’t pick a more important time. Typical of an incompetent council.
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the point of public access is to meet the government promise that everyone in the country should have internet access. Its not an attempt to inform, its an attempt to provide everyone with an amenity. Those that wish to inform themselves have lots of other media from which to choose.
As for it taking a long time, have you ever managed a computer network? It takes a hell of a long time to update individual computers and individual user accounts. It may be that some libraries are back online sooner, ie as soon as a new server is put in place and the first library is updated im sure they will open it immediately. 2 weeks is probably the total time to do all libraries, which if you think of an average of maybe 4 or 5 computers in each library is actually quite a short time.
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What about the kids who use the computers for school work. GCSE’s and A’Levels in a months time. And the council want to improve results….I think they should of thought about the timing of this.
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theres computers in the schools for kids to use. It might be a little inconvenient for them but Im sure teachers wouldnt mind kids staying back for an hour after school to use the computers for their work.
Theres plenty of alternatives to the library computers for every type of user. It might be inconvenient for 2 weeks, but its not really that much of a problem.
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Computers out of action – election coming up:-(
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Yes Jon there are computers in schools, however getting the opportunity to use one is on a first come first served basis, so it comes down to luck and the schools aren’t open at weekends. It would have been better if this work was carried out in the xmas holidays. That way school kids would be less affected.
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Isn’t this really a storm in a teacup…yes the Library Computers need upgrade, The council picked a stupid time to do it , but are at least doing it
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That depends No5 on whether you are a student who is about to take exams that will affect the rest of your life and need access to the library computers….or not!!!
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Jackie, if a student needs to use a computer to pass their GCSEs theres something seriously wrong. As far as I know the exams are still hand written, and textbooks are still available. Yes, its inconvenient and it means students may have to put a little extra effort in by actually using a book index to look something up rather than google, but I would think thats a good thing. As No. 5 says its a storm in a teacup. The timing may be thought bad by some, but others will appreciate the upgraded systems and accept that this takes time to implement. You cannot please everyone all the time, and to suggest a student may fail an exam because a computer isnt available is ludicrous. As with the election, there is other media available to learn the material, and other computer access available. Its an inconvenience, not something that will affect the rest of a persons life.
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I’m in Shanklin Library a lot…I have never seen a student in there.
Its mostly middle aged people doing online jon applications or workers on Lunch breal checking Emails.
Schools and colleges have their IT departments available during holidays.
Storm in a tea cup, bad timing, but at least they are getting done
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I’m in Newport library a lot and I do see students using the computers and yes I also see jobless people looking for jobs another group of people who can’t go elsewhere because of costs.
Bad timing is right…
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Newport has more Stuidents than Shanklin :-)
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Yes it does :)
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Do you notice anyone furtively posting on VB No5? A male, 6′, late 20′s, quite smartly dressed, rides a pedal cycle, lives with parents, doesn’t have a girlfriend I hear, but does hold a position of responsibility, for now at least.
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are you admitting to being David Pugh and furtively posting on VB? Just wondering, because theres any number of people who remain anonymous on here, and any number of people who could be Pugh using a different name.
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not as yet!!!!!!!!!!!!
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No Jon, we live in an age where information that is only available on the web is very much a part of what is required is get the top grades. The exams consist of a large amount of course work, which is done in the student’s own time. I think that you was lucky to get your degree at a time when the competion for university places weren’t at the critical level that it is now. Every year the syllabus for courses gets harder, with more information for students to have to digest. I stand by my statement that not being able to access a computer could affect a childs life. Are you aware of how much work a student has to do on a computer? Do you know that students HAVE to hand in work that has been typed rather than handwritten? Do you have a child that is about to take GCSE’s or A’Levels? I do and I speak from experience.
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Well you were talking about exams, not coursework. But coursework doesnt require internet access, just a computer. There are computers availible elsewhere. If you think the library is the only place children can access a computer you are very much mistaken. it may be the most convenient place, but there are other places.
As for information that is only available on the web, if a student is truly unable to access the information themselves Im sure they could ask a teacher to print it off for them.
Rather than moaning about a lack of access, maybe people should put more time into thinking of an alternative way to get hold of that information. Theres plenty of alternatives around. They may be inconvenient. They may cost slightly more. They may require you to travel slightly further. But they are there.
As for my degree, I worked bloody hard to get into uni, and bloody hard to pass my degree, and I resent your implication that it was easier for me to get into uni than it is today. To be fair, i dont know why you would think that anyway as you have no idea when I went to uni, or where, and you cant know what the competition was at the time.
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Jon, the coursework is part of the overall exam marks and kids are all desperately trying to complete their coursework and revise for the written exams. The schools recommend certain websites to use to aid their revision, note I said websites, which require internet access. The use of the library computers are free, elsewhere you have to pay, as for travelling, that’s further cost, where do you think this money is coming from? As for asking teachers to print off, yes that is a possiblitity but the child has to know what it is that they want printed off and for that they would need to access the web themselves. Teachers are not going to do the research. As for accessing the information elsewhere, I have hundreds of books and I’m an avid user of the library, however the internet is by far the best resource for information. I do a lot of research and quite often when I ask for information I’m referred to a website. An example of what I’m trying to say is, my daughter for her Geography coursework did a study of Newport, which included all sorts of socio-economic information, to have got this information from the council would of taken months and may even have not come other than by being referred to the relevant webpages. We live in a computer age, like it or not, personally I have mixed feelings about that, but that’s another matter.
I’m sorry that you feel offended by my comments to do with your degree and I am in no way saying that you did not work hard for it, I’m sure you did and I’m sure that the competition was tough but Jon the world is a tougher place today than it was yesterday and everyday it gets tougher. All I’m saying is that the council should have taken the students into consideration before deciding on the timing.
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last time I had to use the library computers, I was charged. It was a few years back, but as far as I know they still charge.
Yes, coursework is part of the exam grade, and kids should have access to the internet to do it. But the information is available elsewhere. It can be found in books. And if not, internet access is available elsewhere.
The point Im making is that you are not going to change the councils decision on this, so put your efforts into finding an alternative, however inconvenient it may be. Whenever the council chose to do this update, someone would have been adversely affected. The council attitude would be that there are computers provided in school, and library computers are not solely used by school kids for school work. Other people use them too, and Im sure some are just as inconvenienced by this as you are. As I keep saying, its an inconvenience, not the end of the world, and 2 weeks of not being able to use a computer in a library will not adversly affect anyone when there are computers availible elsewhere and other forms of media available. Sorry if it makes life a little bit harder for anyone, but thats the way life goes sometimes. Get on with it, stop trying to find the cloud in the silver lining, and find an alternative for 14 days.
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Thank you for giving me the councils line on this, I certainly did not expect this council to stop and consider anybody else in the decisions that they make. And no Jon, the computers are free, Yes a while back there was a charge but they are now free. The world is a forever changing place, and I have no doubt that there will once again be a charge coming soon.
You seem to think for some reason that I will be personally inconvenienced by this. Unless something goes wrong with my home computer and internet access and I would need to look for alternatives then this doesn’t affect me personally, however it will affect some students who are about to take their exams.
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its not the councils line, its what I think they may have considered when they thought about this. They will have considered the inconvenicence to everyone, not just students. And they will have balanced that against the benefits to everyone, not just students, when the work is compleate. Based on this, they will make a decision.
Its interesting to know you have a computer at home and wont be affected personally. I assume the same is true for your daugher and her schoolwork as im sure she can use your computer. So infact, your just speculating on the effect this will have on students. For all you know they may be perfectly happy to access a computer at school or elsewhere for two weeks. Once again, someone making a lot of noise because they dont like a decision the council has made. Im sure the people who DO have to use those computers will be able to make alternative arrangements for 2 weeks, or will be able to survive without internet access. Like I said before, it would be unpopular at any time for the people using the computers, and unpopular at any time for the people who think we shouldnt be inconvenienced in any way at any time by the council, but instead should expect consistent service all the time and dont realise that sometimes improvements take time or problems may prevent the council providing a service for a time. Actually, thats unfair. I think most people do realise that, its just some like shouting about it.
At some point you have to stop and acknowlage that this is whats happening, theres nothing you can do to stop it, and when you look at what else is available, its really not the end of the world. You can moan about problems all day every day, but finding solutions or workarounds is a better use of time. Unless of course your just really bored and find this entertaining like me.
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You are joking of course….the council taking its residents into consideration before making decisions…I don’t think so.
What I actually said was if nothing goes wrong with my computer or internet access….I have experienced this and my daughter has had to use the library computers, she had trouble using the schools computers as they were being used by A’Level students who were able to get there first. So far from speculating, I speak from experience, like I have already said.
I find your attitude extremely patronising, do not presume that you can give me advice especially as I did not ask for it. If the worst came to the worst I would deal with it and with no help from you thank you. However there are better periods of time in which this work could have been done and now is not one of them. And one other thing, if I choose to speak out on behalf of others then I see that as a good thing, I only wish more people would speak out on behalf of others and not only when they are personally being affected by others decisions, which tends to be what happens. Maybe if more people were to care about the plight of other people and speak out the world just might be a nicer place with less injustice and not the selfish, self-interest place that it is.
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Of course the council takes its resedents into consideration before making decisions. But they take all residents into consideration, which means some people may not like the decision that is made.
As for offering you advice, no not at all. Im simply pointing out an alternative course of action you may wish to consider. Have you contacted the council about this to register your complaint? Or have you just moaned about it on here? Too many people like to moan without actually trying to change the decision or find an alternative. If you want some advice, contact the council and complain to them. But dont be surprised if they tell you that complainants are a minority and they are working for the majority.
As for speaking on behalf of others, maybe you should allow them to speak for themselves. Has your daughter actually expressed that she and other students may be inconvenienced by this?
And other students getting to computers first in a school is a fact of life. Im sure if students wait, they can take computers as they become free.
I have no objection to people adding their voice to others in an attempt to raise the profile of a problem, but this really isnt that much of a problem. Its a minor inconvenience which you have blown out of proportion. As for finding my attitude patronising, I find yours patronising too. To presume to speak up for a group who havnt asked you to is the height of arrogance. And before you say it, Im not speaking up for the council. Im simply pointing out that there is more to life than internet access, students do have alternatives, and the council decision would be unpopular at any time, not just now.
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Does anyone ever thank the staff that put in the effort to keep this network running 99.9% of the time – No, all they moan about is when system is not there.
For information the staff are working there hardest to ensure that branches are back up and running before the end of the two weeks, but if they do will they get any thanks, no I doubt it.
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So that you have at least one…. Thankyou.
Its all too easy to critisise when people dont know how much the job involves. I dont know fully, but I can guess theres a hell of a lot of work involved. If you manage to get it done before 2 weeks I would be amazed but impressed. Incidentally, maybe you could tell us why its being done now? Is it some dastardly ploy to deny internet access during the exam and election time, or is it simply the time when you have chosen to do it as most reasonable people would think?
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Thank you Jon
Yes there is a lot of work involved in setting up a new system and ensuring that all the computers are updated. The staff are confident this will be achieved ahead of schedule and two weeks is the whole time it would take to complete, as your previous post says they aim to have branches up and running as soon as they can.
No ploy to stop access for anyone, but whenever it was planned it would not have suited everyone.
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Gratitude! Have you seen your opening hours? Until you can manage at least 9 – 5 I think many of us will believe you have it fairly easy. Thanks are hard to offer when we pay so much council tax for less and less service. Two weeks is a long time for an upgrade and to do it during exams and elections shows a certain lack of appreciation for why the service is provided.
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They would if the Tory council had’nt cut their budget….Libraries always first to go under Tories
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