New York State Library Receives $7.7 Million Grant from Bill & Melinda Gates

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Library announced today that it has received a $7.7 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to provide computers, Internet access and technical training for public libraries across the state. Working with a coalition of statewide library leaders, the New York State Library was successful in securing a Gates Library Initiative State Partnership Grant Application to bring computers and Internet technology to public libraries serving low-income communities in New York State. Separately, Microsoft Corporation will donate $5 million worth of software to libraries receiving grants.

New York State Librarian Janet Martin Welch commented, “We are delighted that the State Library was able to secure these cornerstone grants. This funding will move us one step closer to our goal of 21st century library service for all New Yorkers and will provide a foundation on which to continue to build our libraries into community information and technology centers.”

Public libraries and their branches that serve communities at or above the 10 percent poverty level, as determined the 1990 U.S. Census, will be eligible to submit applications for cash grants to purchase hardware, telecommunications services, training and technical assistance. Libraries that are ineligible for cash grants may apply for partial building grants to purchase computers and training at a discounted rate.

“The work of the Gates Library Initiative is to bridge the technology gap by providing better access to information for all people,” said Richard Akeroyd, executive director of the Gates Library Initiative. “Our concern is to address the disadvantaged who are slipping further and further behind, creating what has been called ‘the digital divide’ and that children growing up in poverty will be ill equipped to work and learn in the next century.”

Workshops to help libraries prepare their individual applications will be held in spring 2000. Training of library representatives and delivery and set-up of the equipment of this new service is expected to begin before April 2001.

Libraries that serve a population area of 300,000 or more are eligible for an Accelerated Grant Program and have been invited by the Gates Library Initiative to submit grants by November 5, 1999. Awards for this program are expected to be made early next year.

Libraries in New York State that qualify for the Accelerated Grant Program include the Brooklyn Public Library, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, the Onondaga County Public Library, the Queens Borough Public Library and The New York Public Library. There are no grant-writing workshops offered for the Accelerated Grant Program.

Information about the Gates Library Initiative and New York’s State Partnership Grant will be posted on the New York State Library web site at <www.nysl.nysed.gov>as it becomes available.

Since the inception of the Gates Library Initiative in 1997, the Foundation has awarded grants of more than $35 million to 2,200 libraries to bring Internet access to their patrons, as well as provide staff with technical assistance and training to bridge the “digital divide.”

The New York State Library has served New Yorkers, state government and researchers for 180 years. The largest state library in the nation, it is the only one to qualify for membership in the Association of Research Libraries. The New York State Library provides leadership and support to some 7,000 libraries and library systems statewide; maintains a Talking Book and Braille Library serving more than 38,000 New Yorkers; and offers 24-hour access to a powerful online catalog through EXCELSIOR (http://www.nysl.nysed.gov). The State Library is located on the 7th floor of the Cultural Education Center in the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY. For information call 518.474.5355.