If some resources seem slow, perform diagnostics to understand why. Traceroute will also show the performance of each intervening router or exchange point along the way, allowing you to identify any major bottlenecks. Be prepared to lobby for increased bandwidth to support the library's operation. Make sure you are able to document the dollars spent per year on Internet-based content, and the importance these resources have on the mission of the organization. As we experienced with Napster, life on the Internet is unpredictable.
Efforts aimed at detailed planning can become quickly overwhelmed by fast-sweeping trends.
Sometimes the best we can hope for is to survive from one crisis to the next. We are currently blocking the outside world from gaining access to MP3 files from our internal networks. Efforts are underway to educate students on the legal and ethical issues related to the duplication of copyrighted material. I suppose we're holding our own this time around, though I'm sure this is just the first wave of many in terms of competition for Internet bandwidth. Marshall Breeding is the technology analyst at Vanderbilt University's Heard Library and a writer and speaker on library technology issues.