Houston Aims to Bridge Digital Divide
with “Virtual Desktop”
The city of Houston unveiled a new program August 20 that will give any resident with a library card free access to e-mail, word processing and spreadsheet software, and 25 megabytes of secure storage space for documents. It is the first program of its kind in the United States, the city’s Chief Information Officer Denny Piper told American Libraries.
Mayor Lee P. Brown demonstrated the new “virtual desktop” at the Smith branch library, one of three now running a pilot version of the application suite dubbed SimHouston. The library, which has provided Internet access since 1996, currently has more than 470 public-access terminals where patrons will be able to establish accounts that can then be accessed via any Internet connection. The system will be installed at other library branches over the next few months.
A contract with the Houston-based company Internet Access Technologies is still being negotiated. While a dollar amount has not been announced, Piper said the program will actually save money because it will make some services and software already used by the city more cost-effective. SimHouston will be available to citizens first through the library and later at city government offices.
While the program is the mayor’s initiative, library director Barbara Gubbin is very supportive, Piper said. Library Public Information Officer Sheryl Berger told AL that it “will help in our outreach efforts to offer more services to our customers.”
Posted August 27, 2001.
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