Wireless Networking: A How‐To‐Do‐It Manual for Librarians

Citation

Knight, J. (2007), "Wireless Networking: A How‐To‐Do‐It Manual for Librarians", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 437-438. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330710831675

Wireless networks have been a hot topic for some years now, and many institutions have either have deployed them, are deploying them now or are contemplating them. Wireless Networking: A How‐To‐Do‐It Manual for Librarians aims to give librarians a basic but well‐rounded introduction to the subject. The intention of the authors is to provide librarians with enough information to undertake small scale wireless installations themselves, or be able to understand and influence larger systems that might be installed by an organisation's IT department and/or specialist contractor.

The book starts by looking at the basic ideas behind wireless networking. It introduces some of the fundamental concepts behind radio communication and the various technologies and standards in use, as well as a bit of background history. The latter, whilst not strictly necessary, is interesting and will provide the reader with some useful, and in some cases surprising, “dinner party” facts! The authors then go on to look at the various forces that are driving organisations towards wireless LANs and how these can be used to provide leverage to acquire funding and other resources. A more in‐depth look at some of the current technologies is coupled to a description of how wireless “site surveys” should be conducted. There is also some useful discussion about usage policies, providing help/troubleshooting, security and acquiring staff, management and user community buy in.

There is a large and fairly comprehensive glossary with clear descriptions of some of the common terms that will be encountered in the field, as well as the usual index at the rear. The authors provide a useful bibliography of works they used in preparing the book (including paper‐based and online resources) and a list of contact details for a variety of equipment vendors. They have also included a snapshot of a selection of policy and FAQ documents from a variety of libraries as well as excerpts from a US public library's site survey document. The latter is an excellent example of what a site survey should include and will be a useful benchmark to compare site surveys that readers undertake or contract out.

The authors themselves are librarians in the USA; one in a public library and one in an academic institution. They have both gone through the process of getting wireless into their respective organisations and their own experiences are included, along with those of other similar library staff. The result is a publication that, whilst providing much technical information, is written from a point of view and in language that other librarians should feel comfortable with; this accessibility will be valuable to library staff needing to “get up to speed” on wireless networking quickly.

Niggles with this text are minor. Given the authors' affiliations there is a US bias, although most readers will be aware of parallels between US specific issues and similar problems elsewhere. On the whole, I would not hesitate to recommend it to its target audience, so if you are a librarian who is going to be getting involved with wireless networking in any way, this book is for you.