March 9, 2002 – The territory's public library system has been approved recently to receive two major grants, one from the federal government and the other from one of the nation's most prominent private funding sources, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services has awarded the library system $96,583 under the federal Library Services and Technology Act. The money will be utilized in ongoing efforts to link the territory's libraries electronically into the V.I. Automated Library System.
The Gates Foundation has awarded the Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums a grant of $71,115 that will provide for each public library in the territory to receive six computers, along with training in their use, technological assistance and other support.
In both cases, the funding will benefit all of the public libraries in the territory — Enid M. Baa on St. Thomas, Florence A. Williams in Christiansted, Athalie McFarlane Petersen in Frederiksted and Elaine Ione Sprauve on St. John.
Sharlene Harris, director of library services, is currently spending two weeks at the Gates Foundation headquarters in Seattle, Wash., for training in the utilization of the computers and software that the territory will receive.
The federal grant was awarded according to a nationwide population-based formula, according to a release from Delegate Donna Christian Christensen. Such grants "are given to promote access to learning and information resources in all of the libraries across the country," the release states. The grants have two primary purposes:
– To provide technology and support for networking and resource sharing.
– To provide service to population groups that have difficulty utilizing a library, with a special emphasis on children in poverty.
According to Christensen, all Library Services and Technology Art funding received in the territory is used "for a single, comprehensive project linking essential library services … through a dedicated, high-speed, territorial, wide-area network." This is the third year of funding for development of the automated library system. "It will be providing bibliographic catalog, Internet, CD-ROM, e-mail and community resources through work stations at each public library site in the territory," the release states.
The purpose of Gates Foundation grants to libraries nationwide is "to establish and aid in the access and expansion of information technology resources through partnerships with state agencies and public libraries," according to a release from the Planning and Natural Resources Department, under which the Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums falls.
The Gates Foundation computers for the territory's libraries will come with software including Microsoft Word, World Atlas 2001, Encarta Africana and educational young people's programs such as Arthur's and Magic School Bus. Software will be available in Spanish as well as English, the release states.
Part of the credit for the Gates Foundation program being expanded to include the Virgin Islands and other U.S. territories goes to Senate President Almando "Rocky" Liburd. In March of 2001, Liburd wrote to the foundation asking that the territory be "considered for the program that assists [libraries] with the equipment and software necessary to connect to the Internet." He noted in the letter that for most V.I. young people, "schools and libraries are the only places where these students can be exposed to the Internet."
Last June, Richard Akeroyd, executive director of the Gates Foundation's Libraries and Public Access to Information program, wrote Liburd that the foundation was initiating a new public library grant program for the nation's territories. Akeroyd noted that he had been in contact with Simon Caines, Harris's predecessor as director of libraries.
