Improving Library User Experience: Wi-Fi Network Assessment

Abstract

Librarians have been seeking solutions to improve library user experience. The popularity of mobile devices leads to the increasing demand for reliable and efficient wireless communication in libraries. The City Tech librarians make an effort to improve Wi-Fi network to address such challenge. The Wi-Fi survey results indicate that students are dissatisfied with the library Wi-Fi access and hope to get better wireless communication for their mobile devices. To seek approaches to the improvement of Wi-Fi speed and reliability, the authors adopted NetSpot Pro loaded with the library building map to audit wireless network performance. The Wi-Fi site survey shows the library Wi-Fi network has not only weak Wi-Fi signal strength, but also experiences severe interference and overlapping channels. The study suggests that the Library and campus IT can enhance the Wi-Fi network performance by adding more wireless APs and optimizing the locations of existing APs, Wi-Fi network setting, and wireless connection procedure. By upgrading the CUNY Fiber Network and network improvement strategy, the Library can provide effective wireless communication for student learning and research, and ultimately give students memorable library experiences.

Keywords:

• Wi-Fi network
• IEEE 802.11
• mobile devices
• assessment
• wireless communication
• network performance
• academic libraries

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Maura Smale (Chief Librarian), Nora Almeida (Instruction & Reference Librarian), Junior Tidal (Web Services Librarian), and other staff at City Tech Library for their help and support for this project.