Heritage College Receives $200,000 Gift from Bill and Melinda Gates

TOPPENISH, Wash. -- Dr. Kathleen Ross, president of Heritage College, today announced a $200,000 gift from Bill and Melinda Gates to automate the Heritage College Library to allow Internet access for students, faculty and other educational institutions.

"Heritage serves students in field-based programs throughout Washington state, in rural Hawaii, as well as on the main campus in Toppenish, Wash.," said Dr. Kathleen Ross. "Access to information and resources through technological linking is critical to the effectiveness of the College's mission of providing quality, accessible higher education to multicultural populations which have been educationally isolated."

After exploring several options, Heritage applied for membership with Online Private Academic Library Link (OPALL), a consortium of independent college libraries in Washington and Oregon. An OPALL membership allows each library to share a state-of-the-art computer system without incurring the ongoing costs of sole ownership. OPALL members share Voyager, a library automation system designed for academic libraries.

When the new system is operational, students and faculty will be able to access the library's bibliographic databases, and those of other colleges in the OPALL consortium, via any Internet-accessible computer.