No More Net Surfing for New York City’s Homeless

alexandria says:

Re:Delicate balance of access
I work in a small library- one room divided between the original library and an expansion. The floor plan is open, and what someone says at the back of the stacks can easily be heard from the front room. The library is in a tourist town, so in the winter things are quiet and we know nearly all of our patrons by name, while in the summer we have vacationers, foreign students, seasonal business owners…etc. The one constant with all of these summertime patrons is the need- verging, many times, on demand- for internet access. Usually we have two public access computers and a card catalogue- our public computers get so hard hit that most summers at least one up and quits. The only way we can funnel the huge demand onto the two internet access computers is to restrict who can sign up for them and how long they can stay on.
The demand we get for internet access means that we need to hire a summertime person whose sole purpose is registering patrons, explaining our rules to them, signing them up for times, upholding the rules, and making sure users get off when their time is up (the only system that works is to sign up people by the half hour; if your time is 12:30 to 1, and you show up at 12:45, then you only get 15 minutes, because the computers are already booked solid for the rest of the day, and if you finish late then everyone’s schedule is off).We give out temporary cards to visitors and workers who are here for the entire summer. We open at 10am; the computers are booked for the rest of the day by noon.
This is the only system, after many crazed summers, that comes closest to working, or at least keeping down the chaos. But there are problems on a daily basis. There are language barriers, the disapointment of card holders who can never seem to book a time, patrons who will not obey our rules, and the enormous anger-and insults- we recieve from vacationers that can’t sign up. We’ve had people swear that we’re the lousiest library on earth, that we should not be allowing foreign students on, that our computers are their constitional right (direct quote), that complaints will be made to the right people. We are, as I said, a small library- the computers face the circulation desk, and even with the extra help, (we are usually a staff of two), the computers and their issues are inescapable, day after day.
Our restricions- that you have to be a cardholder of regular or long-term temporary status, with ID and some proof of address (meaning, for summer workers, that you bring a note from a landlord or the business card of the hotel you are living in), as well as the time limit, is, like I said, our only alternative to chaos. Without them, we have two users happily surfing the net for hours while a mob hovers and grows increasingly restless.
We do try to be accomodating, and of course try to help anyone with an emergency. Not everyone has a cell phone, or a hotel with affordable internet access, or are able to find the info they need. But other then that, what is this god-given right to email? When did public computers change from tools for research to an all encompasing need? And why do people who do have this need not plan ahead- say, when booking their vacation?
Do any other libraries share our problems?