WebJunction

The town of Blackfalds lies on Highway 2, Alberta’s main north-south highway, midway between Edmonton and Calgary.   It’s a small but lively community, and the home of a library technology leader: the Blackfalds Public Library.  The library prides itself on being at the forefront—but how does a 2,000 square foot library in a town of 3,812 stay on the technical cutting edge?  It takes the talent and hard work of innovative library director Darlene Marsh and dedicated, tech-savvy volunteer Randy Nelson. 

Here’s the latest chapter in what is sure to be an ongoing story of new ideas implemented with care to meet patron needs.

Randy Nelson shows library administrator Darlene Marsh the wireless system. 
(Lacombe Globe/CHAD ANDERSON)

When Darlene learned of new grants for technology development offered by Industry Canada, she immediately phoned Randy for ideas.   His response: “How about hotspots in the library?”  This didn’t ring any bells at first—some combination of hot tubs and sunspots?—but she soon realized that Randy meant wireless hotspots.  Aha!

The more Darlene and Randy talked about the idea of providing wireless access to patrons, the better they liked it.   Blackfalds has a small library with limited space, and it would benefit from the flexibility that wireless access offers.  Since the town is right in the center of the province of Alberta and sees a lot of out-of-town traffic, the library might well attract new patrons among business travelers looking for a convenient way to get online.  And of course, there was the natural desire for some bragging rights—no other rural library in the province had offered wireless access yet.

With the enthusiastic support of the Blackfalds Public Library Board, Randy and Darlene got started.   Because of his 14 years of experience volunteering for the library, Randy knew what the library’s requirements were: the system would need to be inexpensive, easy to use, and easy to maintain, and it would have to integrate with existing systems.  In addition, it should meet industry standards for connectivity, so patrons and out-of-town travelers would be able to connect without difficulty. 

Randy determined that he would need four hardware components to make the system work: 

• A public/private hotspot gateway, used to control access to the Internet
• A wireless access point
• Wireless adapters the library could lend patrons who have laptops but no wireless card
• A ticket printer to give patrons temporary user names and password so they could access the Internet

Though Randy liked the idea of open source solutions, he soon discovered that these wouldn’t meet his simplicity requirement.   There were some larger systems available, but these were too expensive as well being technical overkill.

At last he was able to find a vendor that fit the bill—D-Link—and though at first the components were so new that it was difficult to get them in Canada, his choice turned out to be a good one.   The setup was straightforward, with the main complication being system security.

The key issue was maintaining the library’s ability to control who had access to the Internet through their connection, without making it too difficult for patrons to connect.   The solution?  Initial access to the library’s wireless environment is available to just about anyone (even someone driving by trolling for open wireless connections), but access to the whole Web through the library is strictly controlled through a gateway that requires a user name and password.  So if you happen to be in Blackfalds and want Internet access, first fire up your laptop and connect to the library’s system.  This is a controlled area with limited Internet access.  For example, you can do Google searches but not click past Google to search results.  To gain full access, you need to go to the desk and obtain an authorized user name and password that gets you past the gateway.  From there the world is yours!

But if a wave crashes in the ocean and no one hears it…is anybody really surfing?   Clearly, marketing the new wireless access at Blackfalds was a key need. To tackle the task, Darlene:

• Hired a (grant-funded) summer student to create brochures, info packs, and supporting documentation. The student then went out to the community and surrounding businesses to promote the service.
• Became a member of the wi-fi alliance (www.wi-fi.org). The library could then use a spiffy-looking logo for advertising, proclaiming to all that the library’s access met a standard level of service.
• Placed tourism card brochures—a thousand in all—at booths along the all-important Highway 2 corridor
• Placed a “WiFi Zone” link in a prominent location on the library’s home page--with an invitation to “bring your laptop in and access the 'net with all the comforts of your own system”
• Ran community TV spots (starring Darlene!) on a local cable network
• Ran stories in local papers and newsletters

Quinn Kuiken, the summer student, has been key to marketing success.   And since his tour of duty he’s become the library’s volunteer Web guru!

The wireless system launched in February 2004.   Has it been a success?  When you consider that Randy hasn’t had to touch anything related to the wireless system for a year, you might say that maintenance is going pretty well!

As far as patron usage goes, the first summer after launching the program has been quite busy, though it has slowed down with the Canadian winter.   Those who use wireless (including a fair number of those out-of-town visitors) really like it.  Darlene says, “A group of tourists who came to visit a nearby resort town picked up a brochure at a Highway 2 tourist booth and were directed to Blackfalds--they were astounded that such a small town had wireless when the larger towns did not.”

And what makes them most proud of their accomplishment?   Randy mentions two things: the inherent simplicity of the solution and the way volunteers and staff worked together to implement it.  For Darlene, she’s happy to be the director of the first rural library in Alberta to offer wireless service.

It’s no surprise that the Blackfalds Public Library’s future plans are ambitious.   Randy is currently testing a system that will allow patrons to search for books using personal digital assistants (PDAs).  And both Darlene and Randy are eager to spread the wireless vision to other libraries in the province, so local residents and travelers can bring their laptops (or their PDAs!) into a library anywhere in Alberta and gain access to the world.

You can reach Darlene Marsh and Randy Nelson of the Blackfalds Public Library at library@blackfalds.com, or call the library at (403) 885-2343.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.