Cable Internet: When It Is Good,
It Is Very, Very Good . . .
By Karen G. Schneider
American Libraries Columnist
Director of the Garfield Library in Brunswick, New York, and author of A Practical Guide to Internet Filters (Neal-Schuman, 1997)
kgs@bluehighways.com
Column for February 1999
The 1998 NCLIS report on public libraries and the Internet says “only a third” of all public libraries have the technology necessary for graphics, sound, and video. Equipment is one obstacle to access, but so is limited bandwidth. Can cable Internet—delivered by the same technology used to bring us The Nanny—be part of the solution?
The NCLIS report indicates that 2.1% of all public libraries use cable Internet for some or all of their services; anecdotal evidence suggests the rate may be about the same for academic and school libraries. Many local cable television providers are offering schools and libraries one free public Internet connection, which will boost the total number of libraries that have at least one computer connected to the Internet. Cindy Rasely, acting director at Norwich (N.Y.) Public Library, says the library “jumped at” the chance to get a connection through Time Warner Roadrunner; it was previously connected by phone modem, and their connection was poor.
And some libraries have been connected much longer. Director Claudia Sumler says that Camden (N.J.) Public Library has used cable Internet as its backbone for four years, adding, “In an area which has many very small school districts, the cable company enabled us to have Web access at a price that we almost could not refuse.”
How cable Internet happens
A typical cable Internet connection isn't much different from a leased line from the phone company. Each computer has a network card, and if there is more than one computer, they are usually connected through a hub (a little box with green lights and what look like oversize phone jacks). A cable modem sits between the hub and the outside world, passing traffic to and fro, similar to a phone modem. Plain old Category 5 network cabling—the kind you can get at Office Max—hooks everything together in-house. The big difference you might notice is that the cable modem connects to the world with cabling identical to that sturdy black round wiring that connects your home TV to your cable service.
Ups and downs
Most people who use cable Internet strictly for Web-based services and e-mail are very happy with it. Cable Internet is so fast, it feels like a T3 line on happy pills. Images and text fly onto the screen; sound and video are effortless; large, complicated file attachments whiz to and from your e-mail program; the “World Wide Wait” becomes the “World Wide Whiz.” Oh, when it is good, it is so very, very good . . .
. . . and when it is bad, it is horrid! Anecdotal evidence suggests that cable Internet is great for Web-based services but much less reliable for constant-connection services such as library catalogs. As Claudia Sumler told us, “It has been a satisfactory connection to the Internet. It has not worked as well as the telecommunications link for our branches to us for our automated system.” Catalog connections are prone to numerous, disruptive minor service drops, so your catalog loses and reestablishes its connection quite frequently. It's not always easy to explain to the cable company why a minute of lost connectivity on the circulation desk is unacceptable, and in some cases, as Sumler concluded, “the cable company doesn't seem to care.”
If you are considering cable Internet, be sure to ask people how they are using this service. Jeanne Brown, computer coordinator at Portland (Maine) Public Library, reports that they are satisfied. That makes sense; Portland's catalog is internal, on its LAN, so the library only uses cable Internet for Web-based services. On the other hand, Sumler reports that Camden Public Library, which has used cable Internet for its catalog connection as well as Web services, is changing to a traditional dedicated line next spring.
Then there are technical support experiences that range from adequate to just plain bad. Sean Dreilinger of SavvySearch Limited, who worked in a library-based consultancy firm that has used cable Internet since early 1997, says that the first year was very rough going. “The cable company did not seem to regard the Internet service as a separate, business-critical information lifeline, but rather as just another premium TV channel, and who cares if those are on the blink before people get home from work, right?” At our library, technicians left after dropping off the modems and installing the software, though it was clear at least one computer wasn't connecting properly; they claimed anything beyond modem installation wasn't their responsibility.
This isn't finger-pointing at the cable companies. I really don't think most cable companies understand the nature of library work--and it's our job to build their knowledge base. There have been encouraging discussions at the consortium level in several areas where cable companies and systems have discussed dedicated cable linkages. We can be excellent customers—but we have to know, and communicate, what we're shopping for.
Free, if worthless, advice
If you don't have public Internet access and a company approaches you with a free connection, don't pass it up. If nothing else, you will have a valuable lifeline connection. Just don't blame me if you find yourself coming in two hours early every day to follow live video on cnn.com or listen to last night's All Things Considered.
Stay tuned for new technologies and new solutions. It's always possible that our own systems may change so dramatically that our concerns are overcome by events. Hey, you never know!
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