Charlie’s Computers

The woman was calling Charlie’s Computers looking for a cost estimate on setting up a building for wireless Internet, or WiFi access.

For anyone else, the work Aucoin did would have cost about $1,000. But this caller wasn’t anyone else.

It was Mary O’Connell, associate director of the town’s struggling public library, which has weathered years of cuts to services, staff and hours — losing its certification and operating 18 hours a week with a skeleton staff.

O’Connell wasn’t looking for a handout, but Aucoin did the job for nothing, along with other volunteers who paved the way for free WiFi at the library to go live last Thursday.

“It’s really unfortunate what’s going on, so the last thing I want here is for it to have gotten worse,” said Aucoin, who owns Charlie’s. “I wanted to help them out.”

A local electrician, William Burden, donated his services to help wire the building, O’Connell said. Money raised by the Friends of the Bridgewater Public Library helped purchase equipment.

“We really did not have the money to provide this,” O’Connell said. “We’re thrilled to be able to compete with the cafes.”

Thanks to a series of “access points” installed in the ceiling — devices that magnify the wireless signal — anyone with a laptop or handheld computer should be able to use the Internet throughout the building, Aucoin said.

And if you can’t make it to the library the scant four days it’s open, good news — the signal is strong enough to work even from a short distance away outside.

Although the library received eight new computers last year, O’Connell said she hoped WiFi would attract some new library users and accommodate those who come there to work using their laptop computers.

“We’ve had a lot of people come for the past five or six years asking for WiFi,” she said.

Bridgewater’s library has been struggling since 2007, when the town nearly halved its library budget for the next fiscal year.

Ten people were laid off, all programming was eliminated and all positions were reduced to part-time. Hours of operation plummeted from 63 to 15 per week.

In February 2008, the state decertified the library because of insufficient funding. Since then, residents have not been able to borrow or reserve materials from nearly every other library in the region.

Staff and trustees were able to return to 23 hours per week, but midyear budget cuts forced them to limit it to 18 hours per week.

O’Connell said if this year’s proposed budget passes, there is “a distinct possibility” the library’s hours will recede back to 15 per week.

Jessica Scarpati can be reached at jscarpati@enterprisenews.com.

Source: http://www.enterprisenews.com
(Note: Changed incorrect spelling of last name from Aucion to Aucoin)