Caribou Coffee is now offering semi-free WiFi for their customers.
“Customers will have access to free Wi-Fi during the first hour, and then will be asked to make a minimum $1.50 store purchase, about the price of a small cup of Caribou coffee, for each additional hour to receive a Wi-Fi access code.”
I like this idea. Give a certain level of free service and then make sure the user is supporting such service by requiring them to make a minimal purchase. I’m not saying that this applies to libraries but it’s better than charging what most chain coffeeshops and airports charge.
Michael Sauers is currently the Director of Technology for Do Space in Omaha, NE. Michael has been training librarians in technology for the past twenty years and has also been a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, serials cataloger, technology consultant, and bookseller since earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany’s School of Information Science and Policy. Michael has also written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and his fourteenth book, Emerging Technologies: A Primer for Librarians (w/ Jennifer Koerber) was published in May 2015 and more books are on the way. In his spare time he blogs at travelinlibrarian.info, runs The Collector’s Guide to Dean Koontz Web site, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
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