Report on free internet access at the Motueka library survey 2011

Term 1 2011

We invited David Ogilvie to talk about the issues in Motueka. From our initial brainstorm of over 35 issues, our class selected the free internet access at the Motueka library as our topic.

We then invited Julia Wilson-Howarth to speak with us to explain her concerns on the matter. She spoke emotionally on how the free internet access at the library was affecting her business and costing her 1/3 of her turnover. She felt it was unfair to all internet businesses in Motueka as they're all losing money because of the free internet service available at the library to anyone.

We then researched facts about the library and the free internet access and with the information gathered we then drafted a questionnaire to take into the public. This included questions such as, how often do you use the library? , Do you think it is fair to internet café owners? And whether or not the internet access should be restricted to library card holders?

Our class then went into the community to survey people; we interviewed 424 people and found that 74% of the people we interviewed were residents of the Motueka district. Our main results were:

- 63% of the people we interviewed held a Motueka Library card.
- 29% never used the library.
- 72% have never used the free internet service at the library.
- 49% thought the free internet service has made no real difference to the experience people had at the library.
- 60% support the availability of free internet access at the Motueka Library.
- But 65% felt that it should be restricted to library card holders.
- 62% agreed that the free internet access wasn't fair to internet café owners.

In conclusion the survey indicates that the community supports free internet access at the Motueka library, but when the contract is renewed in mid 2011, most people in our community want free internet access to be restricted to library card holders.

By Brittany Shee and Tawi Hartlaub

Click here to view the survey questions »
Click here to view the survey results »

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