ALA Annual 2011: Broadband Grants Give Critical Funding To Help Libraries Fulfill Their Mission
by Michael Kelley Jun 26, 2011A key element in libraries' growing role in workforce development has been the expansion of broadband capacity through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). A number of librarians explained Saturday at the American Library Association's Conference in New Orleans that BTOP grants have provided the means to introduce critical new services and applications that their patrons want but which the libraries had been previously unable to provide because of limited bandwidth.
"We are working to expand capacity, not just the physical capacity but also the training capacity, the capacity of libraries to support and educate their patrons in their communities," said Laura Breeden, the program director for public computing and broadband adoption at the U.S. Department of Commerce. "And were also supporting sustainable adoption projects, meaning working in communities with groups who are very much lagging on the tail end of the adoption curve because they are low income, because they are immigrants, because they are disabled, because they do not understand the benefits of the Internet or how they might use it," Breeden said.
The Department of Commerce oversees the BTOP program though its National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which received $4.7 billion for broadband connectivity in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). NTIA's program specifically mentions libraries as entities eligible for funding, and the ALA has been encouraging libraries to explore their eligibility. (There also is a broadband program called the Rural Utilities Service within the Department of Agriculture for which libraries are eligible.)
The BTOP program itself only received about $450 million of the NTIA program's funding.
"I like to say we are 10 percent of the funding and 90 percent of the heartwarming stories," Breeden said.
BTOP has been a particular interest of Susan Hildreth, the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C.
"IMLS is working a lot with NTIA to make sure that we help them provide content so broadband adoption really becomes a reality in this country," she said. "We're very excited to work with all our states on the BTOP program and also with NTIA. NTIA is a great federal partner and one of our new roles at IMLS is really to try and bring federal partners together on some of these important topics."
Linda Lord, the state librarian in Maine, said that BTOP helped give her state the infrastructure to make an impact on people's lives.
"We are going to introduce people to e-government in Maine. We have over 400 online forms and most people don't know they are there or don't know how to fill them out," she said. "We want to impact people's lives in a positive way. If we don't do that then it doesn't matter what else we do. We need to get right down to the individual person and benefit that person's life."
Maine's Public Library Information Commons Project received a $1.3 million BTOP grant, along with $589,000 in matching funds. The money paid for the following equipment:
‑-- 250 desktop computers with webcams
--- 262 laptop computers with webcams
---3 mobile laps with 10 laptops each and projectors
--- 11 video conferencing units
"The goal of our project was to increase the number of computers and workstations available to the public by over 40 percent in 107 public libraries, which serve over half a million people in Maine," Lord said. Maine's population is only 1.3 million.
Installation of the equipment should be completed by July, Lord said. "We are planning a celebration," she added.
In addition to such activities as connecting people with health information or promoting workforce development through webinars and web-based learning tools, the new capacity helps overcome some of the challenges unique to a large state like Maine where 60 percent of the population lives in rural areas.
"We want nonprofits, we want businesses, we want anybody who walks through the doors and is a library patron to be able to use that video conferencing to negate the terrible distances in Maine," Lord said. " We think it's going to make a difference."
The state library is establishing 11 regional hubs in 11 counties with IP-based video conferencing capabilities, which will serve nearly the state's entire population as well as provide training to local librarians.
Librarians from New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Idaho told similar stories.
"What they're focusing on is broadband adoption and sustainability through public computing centers," Hildreth said. "I think libraries have a lot of experience doing that already, and I think we are a good partner for them [NTIA] to make sure they are aware of and have access to all the great content that's out there that libraries have prepared already for availability through broadband," she said.
See our ALA Conferences site for complete event coverage from the editors of Library Journal and School Library Journal.
