The Daviess County Library will receive $5,200, half in 2010 and the other half in 2011, for the purchase of two computers over two years through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Opportunity Online Hardware Grant.
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This is the third year of the grant program, which awards libraries in selected states across the nation with matching grants for new and updated technology. "The library will match the foundation’s grant with $1,950," Jan Johnson, Library Director said.
The computers will replace the library’s two public access computers at the Jamesport Branch Library. Currently the library has three public access computers and is open Thursday and Friday 12-5 and Saturday 8-1.
The grant is awarded to libraries that serve communities with a high level of low income and aging patron computers. Daviess County Library qualified for the grant because of its demographics and the age of its computers. The Missouri State Library, Library Development manages grants for libraries in Missouri, and will manage the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant as well.
The grant application process began in October 2008 with the eligible libraries, as determined by the foundation’s pre-qualification criteria, by entering the library’s patron computer inventory into an on-line database named TechAtlas. Of the libraries that were initially selected for consideration, 75 libraries and library systems received awards for 120 libraries and branches. Funding will provide up to 590 computers for Missouri library patrons.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation made its grant announcement on July 16, 2009 and Daviess County Library has received notices of their grant awards.
This year, the Gates Foundation is awarding grants to public libraries in 11 states, including Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.