10-21-2020, 05:18 AM
The importance of bringing broadband to libraries during COVID-19
<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-importance-of-bringing-broadband-to-libraries-during-covid-19.jpg" width="1024" height="576" title="" alt="" /></div><div><div><img src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-importance-of-bringing-broadband-to-libraries-during-covid-19.jpg" class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div>
<p>Books are amazing things: little worlds of knowledge or fantasy you can pick up and take with you. Libraries have always acted as custodians of that wisdom and wonder – but here in the 21st century, there’s a lot more to what they can offer.</p>
<p>And the role of the public library has evolved over time. “We continue to do all the things that we traditionally did, but we’ve expanded our role as the world has shifted and become more digital,” says Michelle Jeske, the Denver City Librarian and president of the Public Library Association.</p>
<p>As we move online at an even faster rate, knowledge, entertainment and opportunities for education and employment are found on the internet. Those living in well-connected, affluent places may have come to take internet access for granted. But there is a digital divide in the U.S. that has left people at a disadvantage – <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/05/21/broadband-gap-covid-19-airband/">particularly since the arrival of COVID-19</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Digital divide</strong></p>
<p>Finding ways to overcome that divide in a sustainable, community-led way could help bring the benefits of the internet to those who need it most. One solution is to use technologies such as TV white space to facilitate wireless broadband – as Microsoft’s Airband Initiative is doing. With this program, broadband is brought directly to individuals and, more economically, to a community hub such as a library, which can then act as a wireless hot spot.</p>
<p><strong><em>[</em></strong><strong><em>READ MORE: <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/03/05/update-connecting-rural-america/">Microsoft Airband: An annual update on connecting rural America</a></em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong></p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2019/06/public-library-association-expands-access-technology-and-digital-skills-training">Microsoft Philanthropies donated $400,000 to the Public Library Association</a> to support more widespread connectivity alongside $20,000 each from Microsoft’s Airband and TechSpark initiatives. The money is helping the association deliver much-needed tech equipment – typically laptops and portable Wi-Fi hot spots – to a network of public libraries in communities in rural parts of the country.</p>
<p>The rollout of hot spots has become even more important now, and the PLA has become a key partner to Microsoft in its global aim to give 25 million people access to <a href="https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/coronavirus/microsofts-and-linkedins-huge-employment-initiative-aims-to-reach-25-million-people">digital skills training</a>.</p>
<p>“Suddenly, the lifeline for so many people across this country has been cut off,” says Jeske, who, as Denver City Librarian, oversees a system that serves over 4.4 million people a year. “Public libraries had to shut their doors for public health reasons, so it was great that we had this platform to jump off from.”</p>
<p>Some of the support from Microsoft is being used to extend Wi-Fi outside of buildings in libraries that previously didn’t have that ability – so people with their own devices can plug into those access points.</p>
<p>In Denver, Jeske says, “We are now offering laptop use outside of 12 of our 26 locations, because it’s safe.”</p>
<p><strong><em>[</em></strong><strong><em>READ MORE: <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/10/07/the-path-to-prosperity-through-access-to-high-speed-internet/">The path to prosperity through access to high-speed internet</a></em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Benefits in kind</strong></p>
<p>Deploying fast broadband infrastructure in places with low population density is expensive for network operators.</p>
<p>Vaughn Public Library in Ashland, Wisconsin, is one of the libraries taking part in the Microsoft program. Nestled on the southern shores of Lake Superior, this town looks much different than it did decades ago, when its business was paper mills. Ashland’s population is now 8,000, down from about 12,000.</p>
<p>The director of library services at the Vaughn Public Library Foundation, Sarah Adams, has recently introduced a program to get people started on the path to digital literacy. She says she is driven by a real passion to improve access to learning and technology for all.</p>
<p>“If you don’t understand how to navigate a form, or maybe just know which website is the actual website you need, you can find yourself locked out of things that might improve your life,” she says.</p>
</div>
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2020/10/...-covid-19/
<div style="margin: 5px 5% 10px 5%;"><img src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-importance-of-bringing-broadband-to-libraries-during-covid-19.jpg" width="1024" height="576" title="" alt="" /></div><div><div><img src="https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/the-importance-of-bringing-broadband-to-libraries-during-covid-19.jpg" class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div>
<p>Books are amazing things: little worlds of knowledge or fantasy you can pick up and take with you. Libraries have always acted as custodians of that wisdom and wonder – but here in the 21st century, there’s a lot more to what they can offer.</p>
<p>And the role of the public library has evolved over time. “We continue to do all the things that we traditionally did, but we’ve expanded our role as the world has shifted and become more digital,” says Michelle Jeske, the Denver City Librarian and president of the Public Library Association.</p>
<p>As we move online at an even faster rate, knowledge, entertainment and opportunities for education and employment are found on the internet. Those living in well-connected, affluent places may have come to take internet access for granted. But there is a digital divide in the U.S. that has left people at a disadvantage – <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/05/21/broadband-gap-covid-19-airband/">particularly since the arrival of COVID-19</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Digital divide</strong></p>
<p>Finding ways to overcome that divide in a sustainable, community-led way could help bring the benefits of the internet to those who need it most. One solution is to use technologies such as TV white space to facilitate wireless broadband – as Microsoft’s Airband Initiative is doing. With this program, broadband is brought directly to individuals and, more economically, to a community hub such as a library, which can then act as a wireless hot spot.</p>
<p><strong><em>[</em></strong><strong><em>READ MORE: <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2020/03/05/update-connecting-rural-america/">Microsoft Airband: An annual update on connecting rural America</a></em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong></p>
<p>In 2019, <a href="http://www.ala.org/news/member-news/2019/06/public-library-association-expands-access-technology-and-digital-skills-training">Microsoft Philanthropies donated $400,000 to the Public Library Association</a> to support more widespread connectivity alongside $20,000 each from Microsoft’s Airband and TechSpark initiatives. The money is helping the association deliver much-needed tech equipment – typically laptops and portable Wi-Fi hot spots – to a network of public libraries in communities in rural parts of the country.</p>
<p>The rollout of hot spots has become even more important now, and the PLA has become a key partner to Microsoft in its global aim to give 25 million people access to <a href="https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/national/coronavirus/microsofts-and-linkedins-huge-employment-initiative-aims-to-reach-25-million-people">digital skills training</a>.</p>
<p>“Suddenly, the lifeline for so many people across this country has been cut off,” says Jeske, who, as Denver City Librarian, oversees a system that serves over 4.4 million people a year. “Public libraries had to shut their doors for public health reasons, so it was great that we had this platform to jump off from.”</p>
<p>Some of the support from Microsoft is being used to extend Wi-Fi outside of buildings in libraries that previously didn’t have that ability – so people with their own devices can plug into those access points.</p>
<p>In Denver, Jeske says, “We are now offering laptop use outside of 12 of our 26 locations, because it’s safe.”</p>
<p><strong><em>[</em></strong><strong><em>READ MORE: <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2019/10/07/the-path-to-prosperity-through-access-to-high-speed-internet/">The path to prosperity through access to high-speed internet</a></em></strong><strong><em>]</em></strong></p>
<p><strong>Benefits in kind</strong></p>
<p>Deploying fast broadband infrastructure in places with low population density is expensive for network operators.</p>
<p>Vaughn Public Library in Ashland, Wisconsin, is one of the libraries taking part in the Microsoft program. Nestled on the southern shores of Lake Superior, this town looks much different than it did decades ago, when its business was paper mills. Ashland’s population is now 8,000, down from about 12,000.</p>
<p>The director of library services at the Vaughn Public Library Foundation, Sarah Adams, has recently introduced a program to get people started on the path to digital literacy. She says she is driven by a real passion to improve access to learning and technology for all.</p>
<p>“If you don’t understand how to navigate a form, or maybe just know which website is the actual website you need, you can find yourself locked out of things that might improve your life,” she says.</p>
</div>
https://www.sickgaming.net/blog/2020/10/...-covid-19/