Chile’s Library Network Receives $1 Million from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Expand Access to the Internet

SANTIAGO, Chile -- One hundred thousand Chileans have received computer training in their public libraries as part of the BiblioRedes project of the Directorate of Libraries, Archives and Museums (DIBAM). Since the training started in 2003, members of the public have massively attended digital literacy classes and taken advantage of the free access to Internet in the library.

This innovative project was made possible in part by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which today announced an additional $1 million grant to DIBAM. The new grant will help DIBAM further increase access to computers and the Internet and expand technology training.  In 2001, the foundation gave a $9.2 million grant to DIBAM, which was one of the most significant, international grants ever received by Chile’s cultural sector.

In addition, the Chilean government is contributing $1.1 million to the initiative. Microsoft Chile is donating software worth an estimated $285,000, and local Chilean municipalities are adding $100,000 to the effort.

The new grant will benefit the BiblioRedes: Abre tu Mundo (Open Your World) project, a $20 million national initiative of Chilean President Ricardo Lagos Escobar to provide free access to computers and the Internet in DIBAM’s network of 368 public libraries throughout the country.

Specifically, the new grant will provide 100 public access computers in the new Biblioteca de Santiago (Santiago Library) which will open as the city’s first public library in 2005. The grant also will be used to create 13 mobile laboratories that will be based in each region of the country. This wireless technology will be of huge benefit in reaching the remote corners of Chile. Finally, this latest donation will be used to implement the BiblioRedes project in nine new public libraries.

“BibloRedes has had an amazing impact in its first two years, bringing Internet access and training for the first time to thousands of Chileans and revitalizing libraries as information and community centers,” said Carol Erickson, senior program officer of the International Library Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We hope this remarkable project will serve as a model for other countries.”

In a country where only one in three residents has access to computers and one in four has Internet access, public libraries play a major role in bridging the digital divide. In remote areas of Chile, Internet access is now available by satellite in libraries where telephone lines can’t reach. Through BiblioRedes, DIBAM has installed more than 1,700 computers, 17 training labs and four traveling laptop labs to serve library patrons in rural communities.

“We are pleased to accept this generous grant to expand the reach of BiblioRedes from the most remote areas of Malalcahuello in Southern Chile to our newest library in urban Santiago,” said Clara Budnik, director of the Directorate of Libraries, Archives and Museums. “Our goal is to ensure that all Chileans have access to life-changing digital information and first-rate training to use the technology. This is a project of enormous social impact, since all the services such as training and access to Internet are completely free-of-charge.”

As a result of the BiblioRedes initiative, the percentage of DIBAM’s public libraries with computers grew from 10 percent to 100 percent in 2003. The percentage of DIBAM’s libraries with Internet access grew from 6.5 percent to 100 percent. More than 75,000 people have received technology training. The program has resulted in an increase of 53 percent of adults and 28 percent of children using the libraries. The project also sparked new community interest in libraries, with an additional 32 municipalities opening their first public library to participate in the initiative.

The grant was announced following the World Library and Information Congress in Buenos Aires. At the conference, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation presented its annual Access to Learning Award to Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark and the China Evergreen Rural Library Service Center in China. The Access to Learning Award, part of the foundation’s international library initiatives, is awarded to libraries or similar organizations outside of the United States that expand free, public access to information, computers and the Internet in innovative and useful ways.

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Created in 1929, the Directorate of Libraries, Archives and Museums (DIBAM) is an agency of the Chilean government under the Department of Education. DIBAM’s mission is to promote access to and use of Chile’s cultural heritage and collective memory, contributing to the construction of national identities and the development of a Chilean national community both within Chile and abroad. DIBAM is responsible for preserving, researching and disseminating information about Chile in its broadest sense.