31/03/22 10:02
Kilkenny County Council Library Service introduces eduroam Wi-Fi to support students
New eduroam Wi-Fi hotspots were introduced in Ferrybank, Thomastown and Callan Libraries
Today Kilkenny County Council Library Service announced the launch of eduroam Wi-Fi in Ferrybank, Thomastown and Callan Libraries as part of the eduroam Everywhere initiative. eduroam stands for education roaming. It provides secure and easy-to-use Wi-Fi access in thousands of locations across more than 100 countries. Students whose college/university participates in eduroam can simply open their laptop or mobile device within an eduroam hotspot to have immediate internet connectivity.
eduroam in Ireland is pioneered by HEAnet, Ireland’s National Education and Research Network. They helped enable over 200 eduroam hotspots mainly in Universities, Institutes of Technology and other third-level educational organisations . HEAnet is now working to extend eduroam beyond the campus walls as part of their eduroam Everywhere initiative, supported by Simon Harris T.D., Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, as well as by Heather Humphreys T.D., Minister for Rural and Community Development and other government representatives.
HEAnet worked closely with the county councils across the country, with eduroam now available in
166 libraries in 29 local county and city councils.
They will continue to work to expand the service to many new locations that would benefit students such as other libraries, town centres, transport services, and commercial locations. Many of the new locations include areas where broadband access is a major challenge for many students. This remains one of the main areas of focus for the future expansion of the eduroam Everywhere initiative.
“We are delighted to partner with HEAnet in providing this new Wi-Fi service for third level students in their local library, at Ferrybank, Thomastown and Callan. For more details see www.kilkennylibrary.ie said Dorothy O’Reilly Senior Executive Librarian.
Ronan Byrne, HEAnet’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to welcome Kilkenny County Council Library Service as an eduroam participant. We would like to thank everyone that contributed to making this happen, together we are working towards improving the learning experience of students in Ferrybank, Thomastown and Callan Libraries and reducing the digital divide.
eduroam Everywhere is a big, ambitious project and we need support to achieve our goals. Our ambition is to make the eduroam service available as widely as possible to students everywhere and we are keen to work with any organisations that wish to include their public Wi-Fi in the eduroam service. Any interested organisations can get in touch by emailing eduroameverywhere@heanet.ie.“
