BARRE – Libraries are still a place to check out books and browse magazines, but they are increasingly a place to find a job, seek health care insurance or improve technical skills.
As more products and services are becoming available online only, it can be hard for many poor Vermonters to gain access to those services because they lack a computer or Internet access.
For many the only source for that information is their public library, and the culmination of a five-year project announced Wednesday will provide 43 of Vermont’s 183 libraries with the fastest Internet speeds available.
The just-completed Vermont FiberConnect project means that libraries from Rupert to Danville now have access to a fiber optic network that delivers Internet download speeds of up to one gigabyte per second (1 Gbps).
That increased bandwidth means more patrons can take advantage of a library’s computers and wi-fi connections, State Librarian Martha Reid said at a news conference announcing the completion of the project Wednesday at Aldrich Public Library in Barre.
“It is increasingly critical for Vermonters who cannot afford Internet at home or who need the assistance of a trained librarian to help them use the technology to have access to these services at their local library,” Reid said.
Reid said library visitors rely on the Internet to “apply for jobs, improve technology skills, to start businesses, to get health care and e-government services and to participate in the global marketplace.”
The library project was paid for in part by a $33.4 million federal grant to the Vermont Telecommunications Authority and Sovernet Communications to expand the state’s broadband penetration. Additional money for the library project came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Aldrich Library director Karen Lane noted how use of the library has changed by relating the stories of people who benefited from the library’s Internet access, including a homeless man who was helped by a library intern to find a program that led to his getting a job and a place to live.
“As many as 400 patrons a day visit the library,” Lane said. “We have 1,650 wi-fi sessions per month and (this project) enhances our patrons’ ability to use our library resources. Libraries change lives.”
Sovernet says it has built more than 900 miles of fiber network. The company does not serve as the so-called last-mile Internet provider to residential customers but focuses on bringing its high-speed broadband to “Community Anchor Institutions,” such as schools, tele-health sites, public safety installations and public libraries.
“We now have a core footprint that we can expand off,” Sovernet President and CEO Rich Kendall. “We can expand off that to other towns, community anchors and business partners.”
Lt. Gov. Phil Scott said the expansion will help libraries maintain their role as community centers and help Vermonters participate in the global business marketplace.
“In order to stay competitive, we must stay connected to each other and the outside world,” Scott said. “We now have a new tool in our toolbox to help grow Vermont and Vermont’s economy.”
The federal grant was awarded to VTA in 2010 by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s broadband technology opportunities program, which was created with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
