New Hampshire Library
Wins Fight for Free Computers
The Pillsbury Free Library in Warner, New Hampshire, will get two free computers this spring from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, thanks to an extra effort by Library Director Nancy Ladd.
Last year Ladd noticed that to qualify for the computers, a library had to have 10% of its community below the poverty line. Warner was a few points shy of that figure, and therefore wasn’t eligible. But Ladd didn’t give up. Using new community statistics showing a slight rise in the poverty level, she appealed the foundation’s numbers, which were based on 1990 census data.
“I was fighting for those computers,” Ladd told the February 26 Concord Monitor. “We really knew these would benefit our community. The worst the foundation could say was no again.”
But the foundation said yes, and in late May the library will receive two Gateway computers with DVD players, a printer, software, several hours of staff training, and an electronic server that will allow the library to store and share text from CD-ROMs. These will augment the four computers the library now owns. All four are in the adult section; there are currently no computers in the children’s section.
Warner is one of 28 communities in New Hampshire to benefit from the Gates program. In all, the foundation will spend nearly $500,000 in that state’s libraries.
Posted March 3, 2003.
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