Illinois: “Small-Town Libraries Struggling to Keep Up with Technology”

From The State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL):

Students without computers at home need software to finish up school projects. Grandparents who have never turned on a computer want help tracking down online photos of their out-of-town grandbabies.
Some libraries struggle to keep up. There isn’t funding for a new wave of computers every year. For Laura Carter, director of Auburn Public Library, there isn’t even money to update them every decade. Some of the computers were purchased in 2002, the same year that the library was built.
“We truly need to have new computers all the time,” Carter said. “We have really good service, but the computers are just old.”
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Bennett Bess, director of Pawnee Public Library, operates a staff of about a half-dozen part-time employees to help keep the library’s cost down. No one on staff, including Bess, works enough hours to earn benefits. While this has allowed him to, at times, dedicate up to 25 percent of his budget to books, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for computer aid.

Read the Complete Article (approx. 1500 Words)

Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries