KnoxNet to cease operations



KnoxNet to cease operations MOUNT VERNON — An era will come to an end at midnight on June 17 as KnoxNet, one of the oldest community freenets still in existence, will close down its system of free e-mail accounts and dial-up access to the Internet. The service currently hosts about 2,500 free dial-up e-mail accounts, roughly half of which are in active use, according to John Chidester, director of the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County. The library has provided the KnoxNet service since 1997. Not all of the current KnoxNet account holders access their e-mail by dial-up, Chidester said. Many of them subscribe to other services, such as ECR, Info-Link or RoadRunner, and are able to access their KnoxNet e-mail through those services. Chidester said the decision to eliminate the KnoxNet e-mail and dial-up services was prompted by the continuing financial crunch Ohio libraries have found themselves in since 2001, when the state legislature voted to freeze the Library and Local Government Support Fund, which provides about 80 percent of public library funding statewide. That freeze was followed by cuts and, most recently, an extension of the freeze for the duration of the 2006-08 state budget biennium. “Unfortunately, our costs weren’t frozen along with our funding,” Chidester said, “so it was inevitable that something would have to go.” Chidester noted that the elimination of the KnoxNet services was only the latest in a string of budget-trimming measures the library has enacted since 2001. Others have included reduction of library staff through attrition and reductions in expenditures for books and other library materials. Additional budget-trimming measures will be taken in the near future, Chidester said. Chidester said all current KnoxNet account holders are advised to find other means of accessing the Internet and other e-mail services as soon as they can. They should also download their remaining e-mail from the KnoxNet server and advise all of their regular e-mail correspondents of the change in their e-mail addresses as soon as they have found an alternative service, he said. After the cutoff date of June 17, all e-mail remaining on the KnoxNet server will be erased. Chidester said local subscribers looking for alternative services may want to consider ECR or Info-Link, both local Internet service providers who have agreed to offer special incentives to current KnoxNet account holders. He said the library will continue to offer free Internet access to the general public through the system of public access computers at the main library at 201 N. Mulberry St., and at its branches in Fredericktown, Danville and Gambier. All of those sites also offer wireless Internet access to persons who bring their own wireless-equipped laptop computers to use in the library. The library will also retain the KnoxNet domain name (www.knox.net) and continue its Web site, which offers information about library services and direct access to information services, including its electronic card catalog, research databases made available by the Ohio Public Library Information Network and the KnowItNow 24x7 interactive reference service. The library’s electronic collections include e-books and e-audiobooks which can be downloaded directly from the Web site for free by library cardholders. The KnoxNet service was initiated in 1995 by the Knox County Information Technology Board, a citizens’ group empaneled by the Knox County Commissioners to advise local government on information technology and facilitate access to electronic information services for the general public. The effort was spearheaded by former Kenyon College biology professor Scott Siddall, who referred to the project as “rural datafication,” comparing it to the rural electrification projects of the 1930s. The service was originally hosted by Cornerstone Microsystems Inc., under a contract with the KnoxNet Board of Trustees, which had been appointed by the Knox County Information Technology Board. Cornerstone Microsystems went out of business in 1997, and the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County agreed to take over KnoxNet’s equipment and continue providing the KnoxNet service at the library’s expense. “The library has always been about free public information services,” Chidester said, “and we looked at this as just one more advancement in the information services we could provide to the public.” All of the original KnoxNet equipment has long since been replaced with newer and more up-to-date equipment, Chidester said.	Advertisement

MOUNT VERNON — An era will come to an end at midnight on June 17 as KnoxNet, one of the oldest community freenets still in existence, will close down its system of free e-mail accounts and dial-up access to the Internet. The service currently hosts about 2,500 free dial-up e-mail accounts, roughly half of which are in active use, according to John Chidester, director of the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County. The library has provided the KnoxNet service since 1997.

Not all of the current KnoxNet account holders access their e-mail by dial-up, Chidester said. Many of them subscribe to other services, such as ECR, Info-Link or RoadRunner, and are able to access their KnoxNet e-mail through those services.

Chidester said the decision to eliminate the KnoxNet e-mail and dial-up services was prompted by the continuing financial crunch Ohio libraries have found themselves in since 2001, when the state legislature voted to freeze the Library and Local Government Support Fund, which provides about 80 percent of public library funding statewide. That freeze was followed by cuts and, most recently, an extension of the freeze for the duration of the 2006-08 state budget biennium.

“Unfortunately, our costs weren’t frozen along with our funding,” Chidester said, “so it was inevitable that something would have to go.” Chidester noted that the elimination of the KnoxNet services was only the latest in a string of budget-trimming measures the library has enacted since 2001. Others have included reduction of library staff through attrition and reductions in expenditures for books and other library materials. Additional budget-trimming measures will be taken in the near future, Chidester said.

Chidester said all current KnoxNet account holders are advised to find other means of accessing the Internet and other e-mail services as soon as they can. They should also download their remaining e-mail from the KnoxNet server and advise all of their regular e-mail correspondents of the change in their e-mail addresses as soon as they have found an alternative service, he said. After the cutoff date of June 17, all e-mail remaining on the KnoxNet server will be erased.

Chidester said local subscribers looking for alternative services may want to consider ECR or Info-Link, both local Internet service providers who have agreed to offer special incentives to current KnoxNet account holders. He said the library will continue to offer free Internet access to the general public through the system of public access computers at the main library at 201 N. Mulberry St., and at its branches in Fredericktown, Danville and Gambier. All of those sites also offer wireless Internet access to persons who bring their own wireless-equipped laptop computers to use in the library.

The library will also retain the KnoxNet domain name (www.knox.net) and continue its Web site, which offers information about library services and direct access to information services, including its electronic card catalog, research databases made available by the Ohio Public Library Information Network and the KnowItNow 24x7 interactive reference service. The library’s electronic collections include e-books and e-audiobooks which can be downloaded directly from the Web site for free by library cardholders.

The KnoxNet service was initiated in 1995 by the Knox County Information Technology Board, a citizens’ group empaneled by the Knox County Commissioners to advise local government on information technology and facilitate access to electronic information services for the general public. The effort was spearheaded by former Kenyon College biology professor Scott Siddall, who referred to the project as “rural datafication,” comparing it to the rural electrification projects of the 1930s.

The service was originally hosted by Cornerstone Microsystems Inc., under a contract with the KnoxNet Board of Trustees, which had been appointed by the Knox County Information Technology Board. Cornerstone Microsystems went out of business in 1997, and the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County agreed to take over KnoxNet’s equipment and continue providing the KnoxNet service at the library’s expense.

“The library has always been about free public information services,” Chidester said, “and we looked at this as just one more advancement in the information services we could provide to the public.”

All of the original KnoxNet equipment has long since been replaced with newer and more up-to-date equipment, Chidester said.