EDITOR'S NOTES
Your Source for Technology Talk
by Kathy Dempsey
Wireless
services are becoming more prevalent in our society,
as you know from seeing people walking around with cell
phones
and sitting around with laptops. Now wireless devices
are proving their worth in our industry as well. Hooking
up wireless hubs is helpful in several scenarios: to
allow
library users to sit where they like, to save you from
buying more public-access terminals, and especially to
allow for access in buildings where you can't run more
wiring for one reason or another.
But you already knew that wireless is useful. You
may even have heard it's easy to adopt. This issue
of CIL, then, takes you to the next steps. Exactly
how do you plan for an implementation like this? What
concerns will you face? Where will wireless signals
work and not work? How much will a system cost? Will
users want it? What sorts of problems can it solve?
Exactly what can you do with it to justify the cost
and to make the best use of this technology? Is everything
you've heard about it really true? Where can you turn
to find out about other libraries that have already
been through the process?
Welcome to this issue of Computers in Libraries!
This month's articles and columns answer all those
questions and others. Even if you're not ready for
wireless yet, it's good to be in-the-know so you can
discuss the subject confidently. Then save this issue;
when you're ready to make the transition you'll still
have all these practical ideas to refer back to.
In addition to this great information, we have extra
news this month too. As I'm writing this, we editors
just got back from the ALA Midwinter Meeting, where
many vendors made interesting product announcements.
We saved space in our Newsline department so we could
add the ALA news at the last minute. You'll find this
section starting on page 58.
And speaking of meetings, I hope that many of you
will be at our Computers in Libraries conference this
month, March 12–14, in Washington, D.C. (See
our show info on page 47.) Feel free to stop by the
Information Today, Inc. booth to say hello and to discuss
any article ideas you might have. If you're not a regular CIL subscriber
but you just picked up this issue at the conference,
I hope you'll enjoy it. It's representative of the
easy-to-read tech talk that we put into every issue.
If you choose to subscribe, it will be like having
your own CIL mini-conference delivered to your door
nearly every month. Think about the value of that!
(Sure, there are other magazines in this field, but
this one delivers all tech, all the time. If you deal
with library technology every week, then this is the
specialized magazine for you.)
We hope you find this issue truly enlightening and
enjoyable to read.
Kathy Dempsey, Editor
kdempsey@infotoday.com
 Kathleen L. Dempsey is the Editor
of Computers in Libraries. Her email address
is: kdempsey@infotoday.com |
