The British Library and Wireless

Lorcan Dempsey comments on the BL and wireless; but here's an opportunity missed. Why does our national library use such an odd way of giving wireless to its visitors? Apart from the level of charges, which I've commented on before, why do they need to charge at all? They don't charge anyone connected to their wired LAN on their computers. And sorting out all the bits you need to do to connect took  a good five minutes on a recent visit, though my PowerBook can detect a wifi network and connect to it in seconds, without the artificial, bureaucratic and financial barriers the Bl put up.