In future, readers may be allowed access to Internet resources from within reading rooms (a trial is under way as mentioned in section 5.6). The proposition is that this access would be different from access which originates outside the Library because:
This would have the effect of expanding the amount of material accessible within reading rooms by a large amount. Logically, such an increase would cause demand for reading room space to rise.
Access to the Internet from inside the Library raises significant policy issues concerned with the mission of the Library, admissions policy, controls over what is accessed, and how the cost is recovered. These have yet to be decided, and it is not the purpose of this study to seek to influence them. Accordingly, this section considers only demand for such services.
Experience of public access to the Internet in national libraries is limited. Die Deutsche Bibliothek, for example, currently expects to allow access from five of the 40 multimedia workstations planned to be in its new building later in 1996. Access controls are assumed, but their nature is not yet known.
There is as yet little experience of public access to the Internet in UK public libraries; a study in December 1995 [22] found only 0.5% of all public library service points in England, Wales and Northern Ireland provided such access, through just 30 workstations. There have however been some formal trials of public Internet access in public libraries, for example the IT POINT project at Chelmsley Wood [23] (funded by the British Library Research and Development Department). These trials have shown a large public appetite for such services. High levels of workstation utilisation can also be noted in Cyber Cafés which charge the general public for workstation use.
The experience in other libraries and in Cyber Cafés suggest that demand for Internet access in reading rooms would be high. Given the costs of Internet access, there is no reason to believe that such demand would be limited by anything other than
The Library’s trials may provide further evidence.
Provision of access to the Internet from within reading rooms will increase the demand for space.
<< Contents Page | Next Section >>
Converted to HTML by Isobel Stark of UKOLN, August 1996