Wi-Fi @ the Library

Businesses with free Wi-Fi a haven for powerless in burbs.    (The Daily Herald, 7/13/2011)

Excerpt: At Cook Memorial Library in Libertyville, the public access computer stations were filled and laptops populated tables nearby.

Parker Melvin, a sales rep for a marketing and promotional firm, was without power at his home office in McHenry. He decided to avoid the 82-degree swelter in his home and opted for air conditioning Monday night at a friend's home in Libertyville. No Internet connection, however.

He went to Caribou coffee first thing Tuesday to work and switched to the library.

"I'm catching up on email and I have a price quote to get out to a customer," Melvin said. "I have to get online and access my company's database."

A few tables away, Kevin Donovan, director of national accounts for Saputo Cheese USA was reading email and connecting to the company's server. He said he wasn't sure if the home office in Lincolnshire would lose power so it was easier to hit the library. His home in the northwest Libertyville lost power Tuesday morning so he brought his wife, Mary and daughter, Bailey along.