Library to add more electronic services via stimulus grant
There will be many more computers to go around at the main branch of Brownsville Public Library System thanks to $865,920 in federal stimulus money, part of $1.8 billion set aside for broadband projects as part of the $7 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The award is being augmented by $371,108 in local funds, including $100,000 pledged by the Brownsville Public Library Foundation. The money will be used for 176 additional computers — 120 of them to be installed at the main library branch at 2600 Central Blvd. The other 56 computers will be scattered among library partners the Brownsville Literacy Center, United Way of Southern Cameron County and the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Some of the money will pay for wireless connectivity at the Southmost library branch.
“We’re very happy, but now the reality of getting it all implemented is beginning to set in,” said library director Jerry Hedgecock. “It’s on a very tight timeline. We’ve got to get it done pretty quickly.”
Brownsville was one of only five entities in Texas to be awarded broadband funds and the state’s only municipality to get them, he said, adding that the award is a big deal in a community like Brownsville, where nearly half the residents live under the federal poverty level and many people don’t have computers in their homes.
Hedgecock said a good portion of Brownsville’s library patrons come just to use the computers.
“Last year we had just shy of 640,000 come into our two facilities,” he said. “That’s enormous for a system of our size.”
Over half the visitors to the Southmost branch (4320 Southmost Blvd.) are there for the computer access, Hedgecock said. The percentage at the main branch is a little lower, though main library visits comprise roughly two-thirds of the system’s patronage. The Southmost branch opened in August 2005, long after the Internet had already become a public commodity, and so was designed to accommodate large banks of computers. The main branch, which opened in 1994, was not.
As a result, the main branch has a shortage of computers compared to the Southmost branch. Along came the ARRA grant, specifically targeted at creating community centers for Internet access and — as the grant’s education component — teaching the public how to use it.
“We looked at this as an opportunity to add in more computers and electronic services, which have been in high demand, at the main facility,” Hedgecock said. “This will allow us to remodel part of the facility to accommodate all those extra hookups.”
U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, whose District 27 includes Brownsville, said the broadband project is good for the city’s residents — children and adults alike. While computer access is essential to education, it can also serve an economic role, he said.
“There’s no question, because nowadays a lot of contracts and a lot of bidding is being done through the computer,” Ortiz said. “This could generate a lot of employment. This is going to be a good, good project, a good program.”
Hedgecock hopes to have a bid awarded to a contractor by Oct. 1 and the project completed by June 2011. He said that the application was tough compared to other grants — a slew of details to address in a brief period of time.
“Normally we spend three to four months on a grant application,” he said. “That’s what we’re used to. This process was just a few weeks, but it was too good an opportunity for our residents to not try.”
