Public libraries as wifi providers ...

I’ve written before about using public libraries as a place to work, and how even really small public libraries can be tremendously useful in that they usually have a table or two to spread out, reasonable wifi and sometimes even a printer one can use for a nominal fee.

And all of this fits quite well with the portable surveying mode of working.

But of course, come the pandemic, libraries were shut during lockdown to protect both staff and patrons, and understandably the emphasis changed to online services such as e-book lending and providing online access to family history research resources.

Well, despite the Omicron variant, we are increasingly learning to live with the virus, even if at times living with the virus is reminiscent of how the nineteenth century lived with tuberculosis – voluntary self isolation, keeping one’s distance, and the ever present risk of infection.

I’m glad to report however that public libraries are back and are as helpful as ever with their workspaces – now socially distanced, and of course their free wifi.

Since the peak of the pandemic I havn’t used a public library seriously as a place to work, but I have used their wifi, sometimes in the building, and even from an outdoor table at a café next door. 

I even used Yarrawonga public library’s wifi from the physio next door where J was some specialist physio in connection with her shoulder op, to check some notes I’d made down at Dow’s the day before.

Public wifi is undoubtedly an incredibly valuable resource. A public good, in fact.

When I retired, the one thing I expected to miss was eduroam, even if I had begun to doubt how relevant it was in a world with almost universal free wifi, even if sometimes the free wifi in shopping malls and the like is not exactly free.

Well these days I hardly ever go to university campuses, so even if I still had eduroam access it wouldn’t be much help – but public libraries and their free wifi, not to mention local authorities who are farsighted enough to provide public wifi nodes, have largely filled the gap …