Pennsylvania Card-Holders to Get
At-Home Database Access
Library-card holders in Pennsylvania will be offered free at-home Internet access to back issues of magazines and newspapers, an electronic encyclopedia, and other subscription databases through a state-financed program.
The program, called Library POWER—an acronym for Pennsylvania Online World of Electronic Resources—will begin in January with computer access at about 2,000 of the state's 4,500 public and school libraries, said state library commissioner Gary D. Wolfe. Service will be extended to homes once a system is developed to allow users to log on with a library-card number; Wolfe hoped that would happen before June.
Last year's state budget included $1.25 million to fund the program. Wolfe said that amount would cover a year of flat-rate service from a small group of vendors that would have cost some $12 million if purchased by individual libraries. The vendors have agreed to cap their prices for the next five years.
Posted December 21, 1998.
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