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Gates Foundation Renews Library Initiative

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has renewed its financial commitment to help public libraries in low-income areas provide internet service and training to their users. The new five-year initiative, announced January 18, will involve grants for computer hardware upgrades, continued high-speed internet connections, technical and advocacy training for library staff, and research demonstrating the positive benefits of technology to library users.

Although the foundation has not assigned a dollar value to the program, it plans to target libraries serving communities where 10% or more of the population is below the poverty line. Libraries are expected to secure local matching funds for computer hardware upgrades.

“Libraries have been perceived as nice amenities, but they haven’t been perceived as critical to the lives of their patrons,” Jill Nishi, program manager for the foundation’s U.S. Libraries Initiative, said in a January 18 Associated Press report. “We want to help them assert their value.” Nishi added that some 40% of public libraries have had trouble getting funding to buy new equipment and faster connections since the foundation began its efforts in 1997. The Gates Foundation has invested $325 million to support access to computers and the internet in public libraries. Among the grants it awarded in 2006 were:

  • $525,000 to the American Library Association’s Office of Information Technology Policy to fund a pilot training program designed to increase the number of libraries that secure federal e-rate funding;
  • $911,000 to the Institute of Museum and Library Services to conduct research on the impact of free technology access in public libraries;
  • $2.6 million to the ALA Office for Research and Statistics and Florida State University to conduct annual surveys that track trends in connectivity and funding for public libraries; and
  • $3.9 million to WebJunction to enable the web portal to help public libraries plan for and manage technology, train staff and patrons, and share best practices.

Posted January 19, 2007.

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