New Round of Gates State Grants
By Lynn Blumenstein -- Library Journal, 8/15/2008
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced $8.1 million in grants to help public libraries in 11 states upgrade their computer hardware. This is the second of three rounds of Opportunity Online grants; they require local matching commitments totaling $4.1 million. Intermediary organizations will administer and manage the grants in each state. The recipients are the Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR), Library of Virginia, and the NELINET, PALINET, and SOLINET consortia.
The foundation, in partnership with its intermediaries, has contacted all eligible libraries: those in communities with high concentrations of poverty that are at risk of having outdated technology. More than 800 library facilities in Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington State qualify in this round. The third round of Opportunity Online hardware grants will begin in 2009. The remaining 18 U.S. states participated in the foundation's Public Access Computing Hardware Upgrade Grant program in 2006.
