Marc Andreessen and His Wife are Partnering With HP to Donate Computers to Baltimore and Ferguson Libraries

From the USA Today:

Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen [also developer of Mozilla (first visual web browser) that became Netscape where he was co-founder] and the and his wife, philanthropist and educator Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, have teamed up with Hewlett-Packard to donate nearly $170,000 worth of computers, printers and other equipment.
The couple says they were moved by the “individual acts of heroism” of library staffers who kept the doors open to the public even as protests raged over police brutality and the deaths of young black men.
“Libraries became in essence the heart of Ferguson and Baltimore amidst a time of immense darkness for so many,” Arrillaga-Andreessen told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview. “So we felt this calling to help the libraries in a way that we felt we could uniquely do.”
[Clip]
Plugging the gap are public libraries, which despite the perception that technology has made them less relevant, if not obsolete, are the No. 1 way people without the Internet at home, school or work access it for free. These range from high school students cramming for a test to job seekers filling out online applications.

Read the Complete Article/Interview
A Brief Comment
Well done to Marc Andreessen, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, and HP!
We hope they continue to think of libraries as a place to donate resources and funds.
We also hope that along with the technology comes the resources (from some source) to use what has been donated for a long time.
In other words, does the technology that has been donated also come with funding for maintenance and if not, can new funding be provided to make sure the library has staff in place to make the repairs? Also, more computers available to the public (a very good thing) might mean the need for more bandwidth. Will funding be provided to make sure the library has the Internet connectivity needed?
Please don’t misunderstand these comments, this is wonderful news but with the technology come other needs that can cost money. Let’s make sure the donations do what they’re intended to do today, tomorrow, and beyond.
–Gary Price, infoDOCKET Founder/Editor

Filed under: Funding, Interviews, Libraries, News, Profiles, Public Libraries, Resources, School Libraries