New Computers @ Monroe Free Library

Purchased through $33,800 Gates Foundation grant MONROE - The Monroe Free Library has installed six new public computer terminals through a $33,800 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Opportunity Online Grant Project. The grant was the largest awarded to any RCLS member library, library officials said, and it has been used over the past been the last two years to acquire seven terminals, a color laser printer and a wireless Internet router. As a condition of the matching grant, the library contributed 37 percent of the funds. The library has increased the total number of public terminals from five to 18 in two years, according to library officials. Additionally, the library is the only public location within the village to offer free Wi-Fi capabilities, officials said. The new Hewlett-Packard terminals run Microsoft Windows, and are equipped not only with Internet access but with Microsoft’s Office software suite (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher). They are available to anyone with an RCLS library card. “This is the second time this decade that we’ve seriously increased the computing power under the roof thanks to the generosity of a Gates grant,” said Carol Bezkorowajny, the library’s head of circulation, automation and technical services. In 2000, the library’s first public PCs were bought with money from the Gates Foundation. The library offers four instructional computer classes every month, and this year began offering classes on specific Internet training, including finding jobs, shopping for bargains, and selling in auctions online. Call 782-4411 for more information.