Projects from New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and DPLA Awarded Knight Foundation “News Challenge” Grants

The grant announcements were made this AM. Congratulations to all of the winners.
A look at all 19 projects receiving funding.
652 projects submitted proposals. You can review all of them here.

Projects From Libraries Receiving Funding

1. New York Public Library: “Check Out the Internet” ($500,000 Award)
From NYPL:

The Library’s program, expected to launch in the fall, will allow families to check out the hotspots from local branches and bring them home, providing them broadband internet access and helping close the digital divide in New York City, where an estimated one-third of residents do not have broadband internet in their homes.
The Library did its own survey of patrons who utilize the free internet and computers available in its branches, and found that 55 percent reported not having broadband access at home. When household income dropped to under $25,000, about 65 percent reported having no access.
The Library’s program, expected to launch in the fall, will allow families to check out the hotspots from local branches and bring them home, providing them broadband internet access and helping close the digital divide in New York City, where an estimated one-third of residents do not have broadband internet in their homes.
The Library did its own survey of patrons who utilize the free internet and computers available in its branches, and found that 55 percent reported not having broadband access at home. When household income dropped to under $25,000, about 65 percent reported having no access.

See Also: Full Text of NYPL Proposal
2. Chicago Public Library: “Internet on the Go Program” ($400,000 Award)
From CPL: 

The $400,000 grant made through the Chicago Public Library Foundation will allow Library patrons to check out Wi-Fi hotspot devices for up to three weeks at a time, beginning first in six neighborhood branches where digital access is particularly low. The Library will also offer digital literacy and skills coaching as a part of the Internet to Go program.  For those without computers, Library will experiment with a laptop lending program.
The importance of Internet access and digital literacy skills in today’s economy is clear. A 2011 study revealed that in-home broadband use in many of Chicago’s lowest-income neighborhoods barely hits the 50 percent mark and is significantly lower in the lowest-income areas of the city.   Preliminary data from the City’s computer access centers indicate that Chicago residents who have received technology training from those centers in targeted neighborhoods are 13 percent more likely to obtain employment or increase their net income.  The Internet to Go program will lower the barrier to accessing the benefits of engaging online.
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The digital divide is solvable now, and the solution requires collective will and bold action. We are committed to increasing the number of digitally-connected children and adults in Chicago, and are so grateful to the Knight Foundation for supporting our vision through the Internet to Go program,” said Library Commissioner Brian Bannon.

See Also: Full Text of CPL Proposal
3. Digital Public Library of America: Getting It Right on Rights ($300,000 Award)
From DPLA: 

DPLA’s “Getting it Right on Rights” project will create a simplified and more coherent rights structure for digital items, making access to, and use of, items found in large-scale digital collections like DPLA easier and more straightforward for users.
“This work allows us to establish a framework for rights for cultural heritage materials.  At the project’s end, we hope that our partners will have a greater understanding of rights and that users of our content will have a clearer understanding about what they can do with the cultural heritage content they find on the web,” said Emily Gore, DPLA’s Director for Content, who will be leading the project.
“By creating a simplified rights structure for large content collections from libraries, museums and other institutions the project will be a great resource for knowledge seekers,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president for journalism and media innovation. “It will support free flow of information through the Internet and open new avenues for innovators.”
The project will involve international meetings, led by DPLA and Europeana, the pan-European digital library, involving domain experts who have a deep understanding of both the legal and content sides of this burgeoning field, including library and museum leaders, intellectual property lawyers, copyright officers, policy advisors, metadata specialists, and web technologists. DPLA will then work with these partners to set up a neutral namespace with an agreed-upon set of rights designations that will serve as complement to the similarly recognized Creative Commons designations. The goal is to make these designations an internationally recognized standard, which will encourage widespread adoption. Finally, DPLA and its project partners will produce a best practices guide that institutions around the world can use to safely make more content available to the public.

See Also: Full Text of DPLA’s Submission
The 16 others projects receiving funding are also more than worthy of your attention. We encourage you to learn about each of them. 

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