When I first heard the term Local Area Network, I thought of it in terms of multiplayer online PC games such as Quake and World of Warcraft. A number of my friends were very into playing games like that. When I found that LANs existed as far back as the 1960's, I was very surprised. I also did not know that larger LANs used redundant links with switches to manage their wide volume of users. I know that whenever I use a computer in a lab I sign on to a LAN though I never knew about the complexity of the network until reading about it.
I never really thought about a computer network being larger than a LAN, though after reading the article I see just how large the scope is of the Computer Network. I also did not consider how much the technology with the connections has advanced in just the past few years. I also never knew about the complexity of the switches that power the networks. Routers also apparently serve as packet facilitators with internet-linked computers. I know from personal experience that recieving packets is a sign that my internet connection is working and that if I do not recieve packets, something is wrong. Personally, I do not think most libraries do not seem huge enough to warrant something beyond a LAN, though given the advancement of technology along with the increased use of eBooks, I see libraries having their computer networks take a more prominant role with libraries.
I thought Frank Klein's video was very informative. He acknowledged that is audience might not know a lot about computer networks and he explained them in very easy to understand terms. I did not know about metropolitan area networks prior to this video and I wonder if the city of Pittsburgh has anything like that. Despite not containing anything flashy, the video got the point across.
Coyle's article makes me equate Radio Frequency IDentifier to what makes the E-Zpass transponder work on toll roads. If it works for E-Zpass I definitely see it working well for the library. While it might eliminate most of the human interaction one encounters from signing out a book it certainly seems that it would make signing out books much easier. That said, given the few occasions where my transponder did not get read on the turnpike, I feel that there needs to be more certainty with the RFID technology before libraries implement it. That said, RFID seems to be the way to go with signing books out in the future as it is fast and painless.
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The LAN information interesting to me as well...especially how old it actually is. The importance of network in libraries is great but I hadn't considered it in context to the emerging eBook. Do you think people will come to the library to read things off computers more? It's an interesting thing to think about.
ReplyDeleteI entirely agree with your point about not realizing the scope of the computer network family. I had heard of LANs before (mostly in conjunction with gaming parties, kind of like you mentioned), but I didn't really think of larger networks. Your point about bigger networks as libraries become increasingly digitized is also really intriguing; I wonder if we'll see more of this expansion?
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