I've changed my mind...

...about reviewing the new Johnson County Library locations.

I'm posting this from the Oak Park Library just east of Oak Park Mall on 95th Street in Overland Park, and frankly I just don't see any point in continuing to hope that things will get any better with this network. Apparently I'm not alone in that assessment because mine is the only laptop I see. I also don't recall seeing any at the Central Resource Library earlier this evening.

I can see having newly-connected users click through your acceptable use policy-but what's the point of then redirecting them to the library's homepage? What makes you think that was where they wanted to go in the first place? Gee, I don't know-maybe we're just too dumb to find if if we need to.

And did it occur to anyone that forcing a user to do this MORE THAN ONCE IN A SESSION just MIGHT prove a tad inconvenient? For instance, try this: Go to Google or a specialized search site like the Internet Movie Database. Now, let your computer sit for a bit (like you might do while scrolling through a roll of microfilm or leafing through a reference volume or the like-you know, the kind of work that people bring laptops into libraries to help them with these days). Okay, now you're ready to enter another query. Type it in and throw it. Oops-why am I being asked to click through the AUP again? Well, all right-HEY, WHAT THE (BLANK) AM I DOING BACK AT THE LIBRARY'S HOMEPAGE? AND WHY DO I HAVE TO GO BACK AND ENTER THE (BLANK) QUERY AGAIN?


Mark my words-do that to someone more than once and you'd better hope he or she isn't a registered voter when the next library tax increase goes on the ballot.

Oh, and with regard to the incoming ports you're still blocking: Can anyone give me ONE GOOD REASON you feel that you CAN'T unblock port 995? Don't bother looking it up-it's the SSL port for incoming POP e-mail, which more and more ISPs are REQUIRING customers to use to help prevent interception of login credentials and other information on open wireless networks-like YOURS, for instance. If you want to continue keeping the corresponding outgoing SMTP port blocked to deter spammers, I really can't argue, but going BACK to preventing people form RECEIVING their mail smacks of cluelessness.

I'm not even going to revisit the filtering issue-there's really no need to since we all know this isn't really an "issue" anymore for knowledgeable users-but given that fact, why are you still discriminating-yes, that's the word, discriminating-against persons who use their laptops in the course of their employment or business? Is their tax money worth less for some reason? You know, they usually don't have a choice as to whether to connect their laptops to the Internet via a VPN. Bear in mind that in most cases the data on the laptop-and in many cases, the laptop itself-doesn't belong to them. It's their employer's property and as employees, they share the company's responsibility to protect it-a responsibility that in the case of a publicly-traded corporation or government agency could possibly be mandated by federal laws such as FISMA or the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Also, you really aren't helping to make Johnson County a business-friendly locale by doing this. People performing research for their employers aren't as productive as they would otherwise be while having to shuffle back and forth between the location of the resource they're using and a library workstation-or having to wait in line to use one, since they can't use their laptops. And once again, neither they nor their employers-who pay plenty in taxes, don't you think?-are likely to become particularly enamored of the library because of this, or supportive of future tax increases.

I know I've ranted here, but this network has been such a source of frustration for such a long time-and I really hoped that with the expansion and the appointment of a new library director not long ago, things would start looking up. Sadly, that doesn't appear to be the case, so unless I hear things have changed I don't think I'll be back. And I'm guessing that I'm one of many former users who've given up hoping that someone here would see that you simply cannot deliver 21st century services while you are still hobbled by 20th century thinking.