San Benito County’s library staff is in line to receive a $30,000 state grant to buy needed infrastructure as the institution plans for technology upgrades.
Head Librarian Nora Conte reported Tuesday on pursuit of the funds to help “facilitate” coming broadband upgrades at the Fifth Street facility. By the end of the year, the library expects to connect to the CalREN network and significantly upgrade network speeds to 1 gigabyte per second, she said. That would be a huge improvement over current speeds, she said.
So far, the grant application is moving along. It passed through one committee and awaits a final decision from the California State Library system, Conte reported.
San Benito County supervisors in February approved a contract with a provider of high-speed network speeds at the library. With help from a grant, the San Benito County Free Library will enter into a contract for high-speed broadband fiber services. It will end up costing $145 a month, with the current cost at about $70.
The agreement runs through July 2016. In the meantime, the county is pursuing the additional grant funds to upgrade infrastructure that could include the wiring, computers, printers or access points in the system. Conte has told the board how the upgrade would put the county library’s connection level on par with the San Francisco library system.
On Tuesday, she told the Free Lance how the upgrade will allow for much faster service while using computer equipment there.
“We’ll be able to provide better training for the public,” Conte said.
She mentioned to the county board Tuesday how next week is National Library Week during which activities are planned. Conte also talked about programs being launched during the week April 12 to April 19.
One is the Overdrive program on which people can download best sellers onto digital devices. She also said during national library week, the staff can provide training to the public on downloading electronic books. Another new program launching next week promotes children reading 1,000 books before first grade, she said.
