Staying Connected

The California State Library Foundation, on behalf of the California State Library, recently received a Staying Connected grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Several years ago, the Gates Foundation gave grants of computer equipment and software to public libraries throughout the United States. The Foundation has maintained an interest in the sustainability of public access computing in libraries, and currently offers grants to support that sustainability through a program called "Staying Connected." The Staying Connected grants are awarded at the state level and can be used, at the discretion of the state library agency, for a variety of purposes, including hardware replacement, training, and technical assistance. California received a grant of $416,800, which will be used for training and technical assistance. Infopeople will be working with the California State Library to implement this program over the next three years. Information about the program will be posted here as it becomes available. California State Librarian Susan Hildreth says that Staying Connected "will help California libraries and library staff continue to offer their users, particularly those in California's neediest communities, sustainable access to the wealth of information and services on the Internet."

Current Activities

October 2005 - March 2006: Infopeople will deliver three workshops including:

• Helping the Public Use Public Access Computers (currently available)
• Managing Public Access Computers - Best Practices (scheduled to begin February, 2006)
• Configuring Your Public Access Computer (scheduled to begin March, 2006)

Past Activities (most recent first)

June 21, 2005: Preliminary report was prepared for the next meeting of the working group. This meeting was held on June 21, 2005. View Preliminary Report

The report provides a list of libraries to watch as well as those at risk in terms of public access computing. The working group agreed that additional investigation would be necessary to make a final determination of the libraries currently at risk. The additional investigation will include further review of the survey results, especially the "comments" provided by each library, and interviews.

January, 2005: State Library Issues Press Release

December, 2004: a working group consisting of State Library and Infopeople personnel and representatives from the field was convened to plan for implementing the Staying Connected program. The group agreed to begin with a brief survey of all public libraries.

View original survey
View members of working group

The goal of the survey was to assess the overall level of sustainability of public access computing in California public libraries and to identify:

a) those libraries that are most in need of assistance with sustaining public access computing
b) problem areas to be addressed in subsequent phases of the Staying Connected program.

View a Summary of Results
View all Library Responses

If you have any questions about the survey please contact Lori Ayre (ayre@infopeople.org).

For information about training, or using materials found on this website, please contact the Infopeople Project Assistant by email at assist@infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.

© 2008 Infopeople Project. Material on this website is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The Infopeople Project is supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.