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Library
Replacing
The library received the Public Access Computers Hardware Upgrade grant award last month and is currently soliciting bids for 24 computers. Another five will be purchased separately. The library district is adding $23,300 of its own funds for a total expenditure of $60,000.
Director Debbie Cosper said the library had been planning to upgrade public computers this year, but thanks to the Gates grant, “we are now able to add many advanced features to the computers, like video and audio editing, that we probably wouldn’t have been able to add for another three years.” The foundation awarded the grants to public libraries that were currently running Windows 95, 98, NT or 2000. The computers Boyd County Public Library is purchasing will have Windows XP Media Center or Windows XP Professional. They will have more memory, faster processors and will allow patrons to do video and audio editing, explained Leigh Scaggs, the library’s network administrator. All the monitors will have easy access to a USB port (for flash drives) and will have 13-in-1 media card readers. The latter will let patrons bring in the memory cards or sticks from their digital cameras and edit photos. “We wanted to upgrade the public use computers before the staff computers. The public deserves the latest technology possible,” Cosper said. Plans call for the new computers to be up and running at the Main, Summit and Catlettsburg branches no later than the end of July – in time for the new school year – with minimal down time. The Gates Foundation awarded a total of $955,000 to the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives to distribute to 115 library systems in the state. The only district that is not included is the Louisville Free Public Library, because the foundation is working separately with libraries serving populations of more than 300,000. The grant is part of the foundation’s U.S. Library Program, which supports the efforts of public libraries to offer free access to computers, the Internet and digital information. “Libraries deserve to have the necessary resources to provide library patrons with efficient technology,” said Martha Choe, director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Libraries program. Millions of Americans rely on public library computers to do research for school or work, take distance learning classes, find health information, communicate with family and friends, and keep up with current events, Choe said.
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The
library is replacing the public computers at all three branches
with newer, faster models, thanks to a $37,700 grant from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation.