I heard something at the Campbellford Ontario library today that I thought would be of broader interest. The Cambellford Library, like many libraries in rural Ontario are always seeking more patrons. One way they are doing this is by becoming Internet Cafes. The Trent Hills libraries do this by offering both Wifi connections and having 3-8 PCs available on a first come-first serve and/or sign up basis. Judging by the constant traffic I think the libraries are doing very well by this strategy.
“FoxFire” Requests
What I heard in the last few days was most interesting. First, many users were asking for the “FoxFire” browser. But it is only available on some of the PCs. So to get to a “FoxFire” machine there was a line-up of users while the IE machines even had vacancies from time to time. But the Campbellford librarians are adaptive and innovative. During the course of the week they had their software technician expand the number of machines that had “FoxFire” available. I suspect with its clumsy interface, IE7 will drive the situation such that “FoxFire” will be loaded on all the machines. I will keep interested readers posted.