Offaly Libraries helping third level students to stay connected with Eduroam.

As part of the Eduroam Everywhere initiative by HEAnet, Irelands National Education and Research Network, Offaly County Councils IT Department has connected all libraries in the county to the Eduroam network.

Eduroam stands for education roaming. It provides secure and easy-to-use wifi access in more than 12,000 locations across 106 countries worldwide. Students whose home institution participates in Eduroam can simply open their laptop or mobile device within an Eduroam hotspot to have immediate internet connectivity.

Once a student authenticates on the Eduroam network once, every time they are in an Eduroam enabled hotspot, regardless of location worldwide, their device will authenticate automatically.

Eimear McGinn, Offaly County Librarian noted that students, researchers and visitors from anywhere in the world whose home institution participates in Eduroam can now enjoy "simple, secure and seamless wifi access in any of our community libraries."

She added that Eduroam enables Offaly Libraries to "further support learning opportunities, access to education and acquisition of new skills for all”.

Ray Bell, Head of Information Technology & Broadband/Digital with Offaly County Council said the Council are “delighted to rollout Eduroam in all of our libraries and added that one of the actions in Offaly’s Digital Strategy “is to collaborate with Education and Learning providers to support Digital Education & Training.”

“Now more than ever during the pandemic and with everyone looking to reduce their carbon footprint, its good news for students, researchers and staff from colleges/universities all around Ireland that they can access their college/university IT network securely from any of our libraries in Offaly” said Mr. Bell.