Continuing the theme of my last post, here’s a college library in the UK in which "[u]sing the social networking site in the library is now banned" because "[d]uring peak times students had to queue for up to twenty minutes to get onto a PC in the library last week. Infuriated students were left standing in line watching their fellow students writing on each other’s Facebook walls and ‘poking’ each other." The funniest part is the response from students. Here’s a common one:
“It pisses me off,” she said, referring to other students using Facebook. “But then I do the same sometimes.”
In other words, the students get upset if they have to wait yet admit they make other wait. So, the library decided to just ban Facebook since it obviously isn’t a "legitimate" use of computers in the library. Oh, IM and gaming on library computers are banned to. "Exeter Students’ Union tried to ban Facebook on campus, but the plan was blocked by addicted undergraduates."
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
2 Replies to “Who are we to decide”
That was something I ran into briefly when attempting to expand bandwidth. They basically said you need to block myspace and youtube because they were bandwidth hogs. I told them that every website has these features (music, video, etc.) and that it’s the new way the web works. My bandwidth gets expanded this week.
Also, is that facebook thing like the payphone experiment. People stay on longer and waste more time if they know they are blocking someone from using it?
Wow. Wouldn’t it be easier to just enforce time limits on library computers. My local public library only allows users one hour per day. I don’t understand why the library thinks social networks are the problem.
That was something I ran into briefly when attempting to expand bandwidth. They basically said you need to block myspace and youtube because they were bandwidth hogs. I told them that every website has these features (music, video, etc.) and that it’s the new way the web works. My bandwidth gets expanded this week.
Also, is that facebook thing like the payphone experiment. People stay on longer and waste more time if they know they are blocking someone from using it?
Wow. Wouldn’t it be easier to just enforce time limits on library computers. My local public library only allows users one hour per day. I don’t understand why the library thinks social networks are the problem.