By Denise Tom
Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ plan to make the Internet more accessible has reached the Ottawa area.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced a donation of $8.4 million to Ontario libraries.
The Ottawa-Carleton region will receive $207,000, the largest private donation ever given to the region’s libraries. The money will be used on equipment and services, including direct Internet connection.
“Part of our mission is that people get access, and this will help them to do so,” says chief librarian, Barbara Clubb.
The eight branches in the Ottawa-Carleton region will receive 38 computers in total, with each branch getting between four and six, depending on the existing equipment, as well as the size of the branch.
The distribution of the equipment among the branches will also be decided by the income level of people around the branch because the Gates Foundation’s mandate is to help people with low income get access to the Internet.
Each branch will also receive a new server and laser printer. The main library downtown, which will be receiving six new workstations, is also one of six Ontario libraries that will receive an additional $58,000 to build a new training lab for staff.
There will be 11 computers and one new server in that lab.
In addition to the grant from the Gates Foundation, Microsoft Canada is donating software for word processing and spreadsheets.
In spite of the donation, not many of the branches will actually make those services available, says Danielle Chagnon, director of library information systems.
Chagnon says they have discovered in the past that people spend too much time on workstations when they use word processing programs, and the waiting list for workstations just gets too long.
She says most branches do not have appropriate space for such a service. However, the main branch is one of the few that has word processing in its micro room.
Large grants are not a new thing for the library.
Last year, Human Resources Development Canada provided a $400,000 grant to Ottawa, Gloucester and Nepean libraries, which is just beginning to be implemented now.
That money is being used on faster Internet connection for library patrons, ensuring appropriate access to the web.
“We are really pleased that governments and private sectors are recognizing libraries where people turn to to use the Internet,” says Chagnon.
An Industry Canada survey conducted in the summer asked where people with no home Internet access went to get information from the Web. Fifty-three per cent of people said they would go to the library to use the Internet.
In response to surveys like that, the Gates Foundation has been funding libraries in the United States and Canada to facilitate learning through the use of the Internet.
“Bill and Melinda (Gates) believe in bringing opportunity through technology and education to all people,” says Patty Stonesifer, co-chair and president of the Foundation.
“We are pleased to support the efforts of so many wonderful librarians in Ontario to ensure that all people have the tools they need to learn and work in the 21st century.”
Other provinces like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, British Columbia and Manitoba have also received grants for their libraries, but Ontario has received the largest one given to Canada.
“It’s not unusual,” says Clubb about the private grant. “It’s just very big and very nice. And it’s very welcome.”