More on Wireless Librarian

[Drew, Bill]

Several people have asked me about costs and such.  The whole college campus
has been wired for "wireless" using Raylink pc cards and transmitters from
Raytheon.  We are an IBM ThinkPad University site with over half of the
students now have them (over 1000 I am told) with a large number of faculty
also using them.  We are not using cellular phone technology. We are using
wireless Ethernet so there is no dial in.  It is essentially the same as
plugging in to the wall.  I really have no details on cost because we have
negotiated high discounts because of high volume.  That doesn't help much
but it is all I know about actual costs.

I'm currently trying out our various databases and such to see how well they
function via wireless.


-----
Wilfred (Bill) Drew
Associate Librarian, Systems and Reference
SUNY Morrisville College Library
drewwe at morrisville.edu
Home: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe
Not Just Cows: http://www.morrisville.edu/~drewwe/njc/
Library: http://www.morrisville.edu/library/
Have Laptop -- Will Travel.


You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people
sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing
wild animals as librarians. 
- Monty Python skit