Collecting Wifi usage statistics?

[Mutch, Andrew]

Our library cooperative's  Technology Committee had a subcommittee do a
deep dive on this topic this year to help member libraries with
gathering wireless statistics required for state aid reports. They put
together a presentation and set of best practices on this topic. You can
read those here:

 

Presentation: 

http://tln.lib.mi.us/dept/technology-services/wifi/files/techcomm/Oct15_
Powerpoint_Presentation.pdf

 

Best Practices:

http://tln.lib.mi.us/dept/technology-services/wifi/files/techcomm/Best_P
ractices_for_Wireless_Statistics.pdf

 

Some of the information is specific to Michigan but should give you some
ideas of options to explore.

 

Andrew Mutch
Library Systems Technician

Waterford Township Public Library

Waterford, MI

 

 

From: Web technologies in libraries [mailto:WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On
Behalf Of Erica Cathers
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2013 12:05 PM
To: WEB4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Collecting Wifi usage statistics?

 

I'm wondering what methods other libraries use to collect statistics for
the use of their public wifi hotspots.

Our router allows me to choose which day of the month the traffic
counter resets, but I can't turn the resetting completely off to let it
cumulate. Once it has reset, the statistics for the previous period are
lost. The small window of opportunity would make it very difficult to
catch the stats consistently. Even if we managed to record them, I'm not
sure whether the number of megabytes uploaded and downloaded would be
very meaningful, anyway.

Can anyone recommend a router that is set up better for collecting
statistics? Or software we could use (preferably free)? If you are able
to count individual users and record the times of usage, how do you do
it? We know some people sit outside our building to use the wifi signal
when we're closed, but it would be interesting to know how much this is
going on.

Thanks for any tips you can send my way.

Erica Cathers

Gloucester City Public Library (NJ)

============================ 

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib 

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/ 

2013-12-16


============================

To unsubscribe: http://bit.ly/web4lib

Web4Lib Web Site: http://web4lib.org/

2013-12-16
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.nd.edu/pipermail/web4lib/attachments/20131216/052abdb1/attachment.htm>