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Library offering wireless Internet for patrons
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| Deer Park Public Library started offering wireless Internet access through Wi-Fi. Rebecca Pool, library director, said about 20-30 people visited the library to use the Internet the week after Hurricen Ike. |
By KOSAKU NARIOKA
The Deer Park Public Library started offering wireless Internet access through a Wi-Fi hot-spot two weeks ago. People can access the Internet using their library card number.
The library purchased a hardware-software combined product called Wireless Access Manager earlier this year, had it installed in August and was getting ready for a rollout, said Rebecca Pool, library director.
What many people didn't expect until the second week of September was that a hurricane would hit the Texas Gulf Coast region and severely damage infrastructures, causing many people to spend days without power and Internet access.
The city of Deer Park announced Sept. 15, the Monday after Hurricane Ike’s landfall, it would reopen its offices including a library with a Wi-Fi hotspot on the following day.
“When the hurricane came along, it seemed like a perfect time to do the rollout so that people could use their own computer and extend our resources at that point,” Pool said.
CenterPoint Energy estimated, as of Sept. 16 around 8 p.m., about 6,000 customers in the zip code 77536, or about 51 percent of the customers in the area, experienced power outages.
The library director said in an e-mail that during the first week from September 16-22, statistics showed an average of 26 sessions per day.
Pool said the library purchased the wireless network management system as wells as DVDs and a projector through a $10,000 Loan Star Libraries Grant.
According to Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the Loan Star Libraries Grant Program gives direct grants-in-aid to public libraries to provide an incentive for local communities to extend public library services without charge to those residing outside each library's local legal service area in order to improve library services statewide and improve access to public library resources and services for all Texans.
On Sept. 30, the library seemed to restore its quiet environment with only a few people sitting at the desks for laptop users, as the area’s emergency atmosphere subsides.
“It’s going to get just a normal use now,” Pool said.
The library purchased a hardware-software combined product called Wireless Access Manager earlier this year, had it installed in August and was getting ready for a rollout, said Rebecca Pool, library director.
What many people didn't expect until the second week of September was that a hurricane would hit the Texas Gulf Coast region and severely damage infrastructures, causing many people to spend days without power and Internet access.
The city of Deer Park announced Sept. 15, the Monday after Hurricane Ike’s landfall, it would reopen its offices including a library with a Wi-Fi hotspot on the following day.
“When the hurricane came along, it seemed like a perfect time to do the rollout so that people could use their own computer and extend our resources at that point,” Pool said.
CenterPoint Energy estimated, as of Sept. 16 around 8 p.m., about 6,000 customers in the zip code 77536, or about 51 percent of the customers in the area, experienced power outages.
The library director said in an e-mail that during the first week from September 16-22, statistics showed an average of 26 sessions per day.
Pool said the library purchased the wireless network management system as wells as DVDs and a projector through a $10,000 Loan Star Libraries Grant.
According to Texas State Library and Archives Commission, the Loan Star Libraries Grant Program gives direct grants-in-aid to public libraries to provide an incentive for local communities to extend public library services without charge to those residing outside each library's local legal service area in order to improve library services statewide and improve access to public library resources and services for all Texans.
On Sept. 30, the library seemed to restore its quiet environment with only a few people sitting at the desks for laptop users, as the area’s emergency atmosphere subsides.
“It’s going to get just a normal use now,” Pool said.
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