Hawai'i Tech
Public libraries offer Internet access for the computerless

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state library system has computers that patrons can use at no charge. But there is generally a time limit and a waiting list. Moreover, the libraries are being required to put in filtering software that locks out access to some Web sites. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

The college has a learning resource center where computers are available to students but, as Nakayama soon discovered, even borrowed technology comes with a price.

"It was really tough just trying to get into their resource center and get to use one," he said. "Trying to schedule my homework was hard."

Increasingly, schools, and society in general, demand that everyone use a computer to complete basic tasks. Most campuses provide limited access, but the general population lacking a computer — or just without one for the moment — must tap into a range of alternatives.

Internet cafes are filling the gap in Asia and Europe, and although that model works in the United States, it's never taken off to quite the same extent here in the Islands. They come and then they go, seemingly unable to make a financial go of it as computer users while away hours over one cup of Java. Searches of online net cafe guides show there are only about a dozen such cafes statewide.

In Hawai'i, and in other states, it's the public library system that principally serves the computerless, in much the same way that it supports literacy across the board, said state librarian Virginia Lowell.

"Libraries are seen as being the places where the haves and have nots, their needs are addressed," Lowell said. "We treat people equally. Libraries have taken to the Internet and integrated it into our services."

And that level of support is soon to increase further. In January, Hawai'i is to receive its allotment from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the nonprofit body set up by the software magnate and his wife to help narrow the digital divide.

The final numbers are still being hammered out, Lowell said, but the library network is expected to receive money for a staffed training center with about 10 computers. And, statewide, a total of 19 libraries each will get one to six computers. These add to the current inventory of roughly 800 computers throughout the library system.

Until the training center is established, however, computer users are generally on their own at the keyboards. For people 55 and older, a segment of the population often lacking computer education and hardware, programs such as SeniorNet at Honolulu Community College provide access to both.

The HCC computer lab, in Building 2, Room 408, contains 20 computers for use by members, who pay $30 a year. This SeniorNet chapter is part of a national nonprofit agency that trains elders in the use of common software, such as Windows, Microsoft Word and Quicken, and how to set up a free e-mail account on the Web, said volunteer coordinator Pete Merrifield.

It's an introduction that often leads to a new relationship with technology, he said.

"We had one instance where a woman 77 years old came in," Merrifield said. "A couple of weeks later, she sent an e-mail to her daughter. Her daughter responded in 15 minutes, gave her the family e-mail list. And she went out and bought a new computer."

Another niche: travelers who left their computers behind but not their need to stay connected. At Honolulu International Airport, the business center on the main concourse caters to those on business trips. Travelers can use a computer for up to five minutes for $2.50; $5 for 15 minutes, or $15 for an hour.

Airport officials are considering proposals for Net-access kiosks to place around the lobby. Other places that serve a transient population, such as Ala Moana Center, already are trying this approach.

On the street level near the center stage stands a bank of four terminals that offer access to the Web and America Online at a rate of $1 for five minutes.

Currency is fed into slots in the kiosk; the terminals are unattended, leaving users to acclimate themselves with help files they can read offline.

The concessionaire for these kiosks is a local company called Adcom Inc.

Company spokesmen were out of state and did not reply to e-mail queries.

There are clear drawbacks to all this shared access. Lack of familiarity with the operating system might be one.

Navigating through the basic functions at the Adcom kiosk was fairly straightforward, but to use the fancier features, such as recording a video segment for e-mailing, would require some study.

Some of the drawbacks are felt more by the lender than the borrower.

Lowell said that to avoid courting computer viruses and viewing pornographic files, the library is planning a move to more "thin clients," computers that allow files and Web pages to be printed but bar any downloading.

The Children's Internet Protection Act, enacted in December, will require schools and libraries to use some form of Web filter by the end of this year unless legal challenges to the law prevail, Lowell said. Under the act, library patrons will have a somewhat limited access to the Web.

However, the biggest demerit against sharing a computer is the lack of convenience. At the library, for example, patrons sign up for a 50-minute session with the computer and have to turn it over to the next in line when time's up, whether they're finished or not.

Students find themselves in the same pickle.

"The bottom line," said business student Nakayama, "was I had to get my own."