IT has well over 40 Wintel computers in several locations, all with the same hardware, to maintain. If one disk image is changed, it has to be for a Very Good Reason and they need significant persuasion. Patron complaints are one avenue, of course. Sometimes they’re the best avenue because they usually are more heeded by management and trustees than when staff members point out the obvious.

Still, I can see IT’s point. It might be a good idea to schedule one major disk image rebuild per year, booking the hours of an employee so that the employee can go out, wipe and recreate a drive, and move on to the next one. Patrons are happy because they can pick and choose plug-ins, staff become happy because they see more smiles and hear fewer complaints, and overall satisfaction and service increase.

Sadly, stress to the node is due to streaming audio and video. I don’t care what people view during their assigned times at their computers (except for the reasons stated earlier). What bothers me is when one or two people sit down and grab all of the bandwidth for themselves to the detriment of everyone else.

I know how AT&T works (I think) — the company just UNblocks speed to your location, because the copper pair or fiber currently available can perform at speeds much greater than 1.5 mbps. Our facility doesn’t need to double our speed — we need four or ten times the speed in order to meet the needs of our patrons who are losing cable internet as well as those who have laptops and want to take advantage of the WiFi service we are pleased and proud to provide.

The problem is in convincing people, and enough people aren’t complaining yet.