In which "public" becomes a relative term.

Finally got some feedback on the North Kansas City Public Library's closed network, which I reported here as such back in October '09. You don't need a library card for the password; just ask at the desk and they'll hand it to you on a slip of paper. In fact I'd pass it along, except for two reasons:

1.) I'm not comfortable doing that from either an ethical or legal standpoint-it's not my network, and its owners can run it any way they want, and:

2.) The security on the network is WPA-Personal, also known as WPA-PSK, where PSK is an acronym meaning "public shared key." Which means, in short, that everyone is using the same password, just as you and your housemates probably do on your network at home. Not really the best method of controlling access on a large public network like a library's.

And that causes me to wonder once more just why NKC is doing this. You'd think that especially these days, public libraries would put the emphasis on public. The fewer hoops patrons have to jump through, the fewer obstacles placed between them and what they came in for, the fewer hassles and snags in their user experience, and the better case you can make for the public library's status as an institution still relevant and worthy of our support in an increasingly wired (and unwired) world where, as ath64 sagely reminded us in last fall's fifth-anniversary post, more and more information lies at our fingertips rather than behind reference and circulation desks.

Whether NKCPL's status in the guide changes is up to ath64, but my guess is-and my vote would be-that it won't. The network is still closed unless you obtain the necessary credential-the password-in advance. That said, it would be nice if NKCPL updated its website and told people the truth about its network-and finally got rid of the nonsensical instructions for connecting they've listed since it went live. I mean, "Open your web browser and connect to 'Zone CD...' " Really? Come on!

And on another note, I'd hazard a guess that NKC's vaunted Windows-only wireless printing capability is still a service in search of customers. The only other laptopper our source saw there was using-drum roll culminating in a cymbal crash, please-a Mac.