WIRELESS

Finding Internet access at a public library is not unusual, but the staff of the Sterling Municipal Library in Baytown, TX, had a broader vision in mind–curbside Internet access for patrons of their roving bookmobile. 

According to city librarian Denise Fischer, “Our community of 66,000 doesn’t have branch libraries. We wanted to offer to residents who couldn’t travel the same services that they would find at the main library, including Internet access.” 

The economics of the solution were important to Fischer and her staff, who were relying on a U.S. Department of Education grant for funding. They worked with consultants from NSync Services to explore a number of alternatives before settling on a high-speed 802.11b wireless solution from Avaya.

“We wanted an affordable solution that was simple to operate and would give us the connectivity we needed to serve 35 stops along a five-mile-radius bookmobile route,” Fischer says.

The Avaya wireless solution offered a number of advantages. With an 11-Mbps transfer rate over an unlicensed 2.4-GHz spectrum, 802.11b offered Ethernet-equivalent performance–giving the library the speed and two-way connectivity it required without recurring monthly charges. Built-in encryption made the solution secure, eliminating the need for a VPN in this noncritical application.

The solution also offered simplicity. “Our staff isn’t technical,” she says. “We wanted a solution that would be simple to operate and free us to deliver library services to Baytown.”

While the point-to-point topology required to connect the library to its bookmobile seemed simple, the trees that are a distinctive feature of Baytown presented a challenge, as did the low, three-story profile of the library itself. Engineers from NSync Services found a solution in Baytown’s six-story San Jacinto Hospital, located only 100 feet from the library. The hospital had a 60-foot permanent mast mounted atop the highest point on its roof, giving a clear view of the entire city. Engineers decided to use the hospital as a pivot point for relaying signals between the bookmobile and the library. 

Avaya’s omnidirectional outdoor antenna, installed atop the hospital’s mast, was connected to its dual-slot AP1000 wireless access point, while the library received the company’s 7-dbi outdoor antenna, Ethernet converter and router with a range of up to five miles. Category 5 cable was used to connect the antenna to the library’s LAN.

A clear line of sight from the bookmobile to the antenna atop the hospital necessitated a heavy-duty, telescoping pneumatic mast on the bookmobile. Mounted on the back of the bookmobile and topped by three Avaya 12-dbi directional antennas and a one-watt amplifier, the mast extends from nine to 58 feet, easily clearing obstacles along the bookmobile route. 

The company’s Ethernet converter, wireless hub and PC cards provide connectivity for a desktop PC used by bookmobile patrons to access the Internet, as well as a laptop PC used by the bookmobile staff to access the library’s network resources. 

“Most of our bookmobile patrons are children,” Fischer says. “With Internet access, we have a way to improve our homework assistance services and to help with basic computer skills. In addition, our librarians, for the first time, have access to our library network and to our Web-based circulation database from the bookmobile itself.” 

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