By Matthew Jackson
Staff Reporter
HUNTSVILLE —
The Huntsville Public Library was awarded a $90,989 grant through the Texas State Library and Archive Commission this week to purchase new technology materials for the new facility slated to open next year.
The grant was part of a larger allotment of nearly $8 million given to the library and archive commission through the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
The total funds are being distributed to 38 public libraries across the state as part of the library commission’s Technology Expertise, Access and Learning for All Texans Project.
The Huntsville Public Library’s portion of the grant is supplemented with $24,935 in in-kind services and matching funds from the Huntsville Public Library Friends.
City Librarian Linda Dodson said the city applied for the grant with help from the Friends earlier this year.
“We had two days to get it together,” Dodson said. “Jane Monday and Nancy Franklin came over and helped us get it together, and then (City Community Development Specialist) Dr. (Sherry) McKibben took it and finished. It was pretty neat how it all came together.”
Dodson said that without aid in applying for the grant at the state level, the library likely wouldn’t have been awarded the funding.
“If the state hadn’t done this for us, we wouldn’t have been able to get the grant alone, probably,” Dodson said. “The state took it up and ran with it.”
Dodson said the library plans to use the funds to purchase educational software, as well as new desktop and laptop computers, drop-down projection screens for the library’s new meeting and community rooms, and digital projectors.
“This will mean more computer, it will be the latest technology, we will have laptops for overflow, and it will definitely reduce any wait times,” Dodson said of the effect the acquisitions will have on customers. “From the standpoint of raising money, this takes care of a lot of the technology end of things. Everybody is just very pleased. There are things in here that we couldn’t have done ourselves, so it’s pretty amazing.”
