Many people go there, but as I have seen, most of them are students and people who are retired. I have also seen many teenagers get books just to read in their free time. This library also allows people to go and sit in there and read what they want to read. I have seen many teenagers go there and look for books that they need for their schoolwork, and work in the library, as there is complete silence.
No doubt this library is the newest library in Croydon and it has all the latest facilities, but I would rather say that they should have made this library bigger than it is. The space that they have got is sometimes not enough for the people that go there. One more thing is that they don’t have enough copies of certain books which I think they should try and improve. I could say this from a personal example of mine. Once I went there to get the new Harry Potter book and they told me it wasn’t there. I went there every two days to check n they didn’t have it for there weeks n they said they only had 2 copies of it. I would prefer them to keep at least five copies of such famous books.
Cyber Cafes
In this section I am going to talk about a cyber café called Cyberzone which is situated in Dingwall Road, which runs down the side of East Croydon Train station. This cyber café provides a range of things for the people who go there. For example Cyberzone offers organisations an ultra high-speed access point to the World Wide Web. The high-speed 2MB fibre optic connection can be fully utilized to meet any Internet requirements and promote a corporate strategy. Whether we are looking to launch our new Website or hold a private presentation for clients.
They also provide a wide range of games for the gamers interested in it. Cyberzone has also become what is often considered a "gaming cafe" due to its extremely popular games network. Their PCs have a large selection of the latest in Internet and network games as well as some single player games. With their fast PCs and large Internet connection it is easy to play some of the most popular games across the Internet with no lag or modem style slow-down. The games that they have are Half-Life, Half-Life: Counterstrike, Quake, Quakeworld, Quake 2, Quake III arena, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Doom: All Versions, Tachyon: The Fringe, Freespace 2 and Forsaken.
Cyberzone also offers a range of courses for the people. The courses they do are Netwelcome which is designed to dispel the initial anxieties and confusions often associated with the Internet, equipping delegates with the basic knowledge and skills needed to begin using the Net and to communicate via email. They also do a course called Netwelcome+ which designed to enhance the skills learnt on the Netwelcome and to further explore the various tools utilized on the World Wide Web.
Usually all kinds of people go there but mostly they are teenagers and young adults. I have seen many people go there and do lots of things. Mostly people go there to go on the internet and check mails or play online games on websites. Many people also go there to play games that Cyberzone provides. There aren’t many people who come there to train but there are people who come there. I only see them sometimes. According to me, many people come there because this place has got 12 Pc’s and a wide place. But this place is so famous that most of the time there are people waiting for Pc’s to get free. I would prefer them to keep some more Pc’s so that people don’t have to wait and by this they could also make some more money and get their space wider.
Shopping Centre Information Points
The Shopping Centre Information Points are places in shopping centres where you can get any help you need about the shopping centres. In this section I am going to talk about the Shopping Centre Information Point in Whitgift Shopping Centre.
This information point provides help to all the people who do there. For example if someone gets lost or doesn’t know where to go or maybe don’t know where to find a specific place then the people in the information centre can help you.
Normally I have seen many types of people go there but mostly they are travellers as they have their bags hanging around them. Most of the people ask about where they can find specific items. The information point in the Whitgift Centre has very polite and helpful people. No matter what you ask they will help you out. According to me this information point is the best I have seen so far. I wouldn’t prefer anything to be improved as it has all an information point needs.
High Speed Internet/Telephone Kiosks
In this section I am going to talk about the High Speed Internet/Telephone Kiosks located on London roads. I know two of them which are the one in front of the Philips building and the second just outside the Mayday Hospital.
High Speed Internet/Telephone Kiosks little cabins in which you can surf the internet and also call people like a pay phone. Not much people go there to use the internet but some people do go to use the telephone device. People don’t use the internet kiosks because they are very expensive. So if someone does use them then they are most likely to be rich or wandering people.
I would think that people go there to find some brief information. For example, if someone is lost and want to know where they are and where to go, then they could go on the internet and find out. But it’s very expensive, about 20p a minute, and people can peek on to what you are doing and you can’t have privacy. Some cabins do have adverts painted on them but most of them don’t.
The good thing about this place is that it has the fastest connection to the internet than any other things. They are even faster than the broadband connection that we have at home. In spite all this there can be improvements made. For example, the keyboards used in there are very stiff and small and also different from the ones we use in our daily day lives. So it makes it harder for the user to type or also to find letters. So I would prefer that the government do something about it and try and improve it.
Conclusion
Basically I was trying to say that ICT has everything to do in our daily life. If we didn’t have a computerised borrowing system in the libraries then it would have been too hard and long for us to get books from the library. If we didn’t have cyber cafes then it would have been hard for people who don’t have computers to go on the internet to do anything. Id we didn’t have information centres than it would have been hard for people to find where to go. All this would have led to our lives being harder than it is right now.
