By CAMERON LUCADOU-WELLS
STUDENTS are being hindered by snail-mail pace internet speeds and long waits for computers at Springvale library, says Greater Dandenong councillor Sean O’Reilly.
At Monday’s council meeting, Cr O’Reilly said computer services were “highly utilised to the point of bursting” including two-hour waits for computers and a shortage of seats for people using their own computers.
He asked the council to investigate boosting the numbers of computers.
“What (the library staff) are saying to students is to phone the library first to see if it’s worth coming in to use a computer. This is not satisfactory.
“We should be supporting our students in Springvale. Computers don’t cost as much these days; as little as $500 for a new computer that could be used for eight hours a day.”
He said the council should also ramp up the “0.4 megabytes per second” internet speed – which was being shared by up to 200 students on WiFi connection.
The internet crawl was equivalent to driving a car at 5km/h on a public road, Cr O’Reilly said. Another way to look at it was 200 students sharing a home’s internet connection.
Greater Dandenong community services director Mark Doubleday said the council would look at the library’s computer services to see if “those particular bottlenecks could be enhanced”.
He said there was “very little difference” in the level of computer services between Springvale and Dandenong libraries, though the Dandenong branch would be relocated and modernised next year.
