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Northwest Territories 
Northwest Territories Libraries $219,219 (USD) for computers and Internet access for NWT public libraries, including six cyber-libraries in communities without library buildings.
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"I am trying to finish high school and to upgrade my skills. When my six- and eight-year-old children go off to school in the morning, I go off too. We all go to school now. I left school a long time ago, before finishing, when I was just 11 or 12. My parents wanted to live out in the bush with us. They liked the traditional ways and wanted me to learn them. I didn’t have a choice then. My parents were the boss of me–that’s just how it was. When I was older, I guess I was a little angry about being pulled out of school, because I liked it, especially math. "We had a cabin, and my parents were trapping. It was absolutely beautiful out there. There were spruce, birch, aspen, moose, fox, lynx, birds of all kinds. Snow from October to April. I was glad to learn the traditional ways. I can tan a moose hide and weave a birch bark basket, things I wouldn’t have learned in school. "Now I want to finish school. I had a job for a while, but I had to quit because I didn’t know the computer. So I thought, well, I’ll just go learn. I don’t really know much about computers. I’m just learning. I’m doing OK; I’m still hanging in there. Sometimes I get frustrated, but my teacher says it’s all part of learning. "When I learned to email my friend in Yellowknife, I thought that was interesting. Last week, when I had to go down there for a doctor’s appointment, I emailed her and we got together for lunch. Email is much cheaper than calling. The computer at the school is free. "Now they are teaching me research. You can ask questions and what you need to know is right there–in the computer. They gave us a disk to record what we do. I save all of my information. The best part of learning the computer is the research. I like going back and looking at the history of this place, and learning about the land and the rivers."
"I came up here to Fort Smith 25 years ago as a young bride and stayed. My husband’s family was here. I’ve been a librarian for 15 years, long before computers came along. Once we started to get computers, I was always the one who tested the new software and solved the glitches. When we started this project to put computers in the libraries for the general public to use and to create the cyber-libraries, I guess the job just naturally fell to me. "The best part of this work is seeing people get over being intimidated by computers and start to use them. I have a group of seniors that comes in here three days a week now for basic computer training. One man just learned how to send email to his granddaughter. She had lived in Fort Smith, but has moved thousands of miles away. Now he checks every day for email. The connection they might have lost is strengthened. He’s still timid around the technology, but he sees its potential. "I just got back from helping to set up a computer and conduct training in Fort Liard (pop. 550). First we had to fly north and then get on another small plane and fly east. Then we had to drive for three hours on snow and ice. We drove a four-wheel drive. I’ll tell you: there’s not a lot of traffic out there! When you travel like this you take candles, matches, food, first aid. You have to be prepared, in case the car breaks down or something happens. "It’s beautiful up there, all mountains and timber. There are no paved roads in Fort Liard, just little houses, a school, a store, that sort of thing. The hospitality is great. People are always enthusiastic to see us when we come to set up the cyber-libraries. They feed us; they put us up. Everybody knows everybody. They are all part of extended families, many of which go back for generations in the area. "My hope is that by training the kids, their enthusiasm will draw other people in. I hope they will say, 'Come here, I’ll show you' to their uncles and grandparents and sisters, and it will grow from there."
Forty-two thousand people live in these beautiful and forbidding environs. More than a dozen aboriginal languages are spoken by the region’s First Peoples, who account for about half the population. Mining, trapping, tourism, and subsistence hunting provide a hardscrabble livelihood for some. Gas and oil development are making inroads, bringing much-needed jobs and changing the land and the way of life forever. Nowhere is the "digital divide" more evident than in the remote hamlets of the Northwest Territories. Only nine communities in the territories have public libraries; the remaining communities have managed without. Now the Northwest Territory Library Services has launched a project to place computer workstations and provide Internet access in the existing libraries, and to create a system of cyber-libraries in six remote communities. The computers and Internet access, along with training and software, will enable residents to enter a world far beyond the territorial boundaries, to participate in the Information Age, and to pursue their own interests in education, communication, research, and entertainment. The logistics of creating the cyber-libraries has been daunting, but people in the villages have teamed up to make it happen. Three cyber-libraries are already wired and operational. Librarian Jeri Miltenberger and computer technician Ciaran Coates have trekked hundreds of miles to work with school officials, teachers, and community leaders to establish the computer workstations in schools and community centers. The public is invited to use the computers, usually during the afternoons and evenings, and is provided with computer training. Miltenberger and Coates train high school students in each village. The students earn credit and a certificate in computer competency. The student-volunteers manage the computer workstations and train others, as part of the certificate requirements. The young people’s enthusiasm and knowledge ignites the curiosity of others in the community. Parents and grandparents are becoming more confident, sending emails to family members and doing research on the World Wide Web for the first time. The computers give users access to the NWT Library Services borrow-by-mail program, interlibrary loans throughout Canada, and a range of online research materials. "We needed a way to reach people in communities who didn’t have access to computers–few people out there have computers at home; it’s just not affordable," says Sandy McDonald, territorial librarian for NWT Library Services. "But now library services will be available to many more people, and they will be able to use the resources of the Internet, too. It’s very promising." |
