public libraries adopting CTCs
Fwd from Jesse list of Dec. 8, 2006
Sujet: QUERY: trend toward Public Library "adoption" of independent CTCs? De: David Perrotta <gradresearch@EB11.COM> Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 10:52:15 -0500
I'm an MLIS student at University of Pittsburgh, and I'm attempting to determine whether or not there is a trend toward public libraries "adopting" independent community technology centers and managing them as subsidiaries. This has happened in Oberlin, OH where I live, and it has been a very positive move for both institutions (the library and the CTC).
What I'm wondering is whether this is an anomalous situation or part of a larger trend. I'm aware that numerous public libraries house Community Technology Centers, but I have no information on how many of these began life as independent projects and how many were library initiatives from the start.
So far, my search of the literature in the library and information science and sociology domains has turned up very little. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who is aware of published work on the subject.
with thanks, - David Perrotta
dnp7@pitt.edu david.perrotta@oberlin.edu
----------------------------- David Perrotta MLIS Student School of Information Sciences University of Pittsburgh 601c Information Sciences Bldg. 135 N. Bellefield Avenue Pittsburgh PA 15260 tel. 412-624-9370
-- ===================================================================== Dr. Michel J. Menou Visiting Professor, SLAIS, University College London, U.K. Consultant in ICT policies and Knowledge & Information Management Adviser of Somos@Telecentros board http://www.tele-centros.org Member of the founding steering committee of Telecenters of the Americas Partnership http://www.tele-centers.net/ B.P. 15 F-49350 Les Rosiers sur Loire, France Email: micheljmenou [at] gmail.com Michel.Menou [at]wanadoo.fr Phone: +33 (0)2 41511043 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slais/research/ciber/ciberpeople/menou/ =====================================================================
On 12/12/06, Michel J. Menou <Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
What I'm wondering is whether this is an anomalous situation or part of a larger trend. I'm aware that numerous public libraries house Community Technology Centers, but I have no information on how many of these began life as independent projects and how many were library initiatives from the start.
Can you please offer a working definition for "Community Technology Centers?" I assume you are speaking of projects that differ appreciably from traditional computer labs or computing clusters. Pending a firm definition, there are two trends that may may relate to this topic: 1. It appears that the concept of merging libraries and IT organizations has been a trend for several years, particularly among smaller liberal arts institutions in the US. Oberlin definitely falls into that category as does my current institution, the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. Bryn Mawr has conducted a Merged Information Services Organizations survey with relevant data; information can be found at http://www.brynmawr.edu/miso/index.html. I suspect there may also be relevant data in the EDUCAUSE Core Data Service; the FY2005 summary was just released a few days ago and is available at http://www.educause.edu/apps/coredata/reports/2005/. 2. "Information Commons" appears to have become a buzzword in the last few years and it may be related to the CTC concept. I seem to remember seeing a few presentations at EDUCAUSE and other conferences on this topic. I'm sure a search will yield several relevant results. Kevin
CTC's were originally funded by US HUD I believe. This led to the creation of the non profit CTCNet which still exists. Now that the HUD funding is gone, CTC's explore for alternative means of funding. http://www.ctcnet.org/ Differing projects in the context of libraries would suggest tech centers funded by the FCC ERATE program. The ERATE program substantially supports telecom and Internet access in schools and libraries - but conditions that funding on compliance with the Children's Internet Protection Act. There are additional conditions to ERATE funding such as turning that technology into like a neighborhood ISP. You could not use ERATE I believe to set up for example a municipal network based on Libraries - where you could do something like that with CTCs. So --- one distinction is funding and the restrictions imposed by the different sources of fudning. www.cybertelecom.org/usf/funding.htm --- Kevin Guidry <krguidry@gmail.com> wrote:
On 12/12/06, Michel J. Menou <Michel.Menou@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
What I'm wondering is whether this is an anomalous
situation or part
of a larger trend. I'm aware that numerous public libraries house Community Technology Centers, but I have no information on how many of these began life as independent projects and how many were library initiatives from the start.
Can you please offer a working definition for "Community Technology Centers?" I assume you are speaking of projects that differ appreciably from traditional computer labs or computing clusters. Pending a firm definition, there are two trends that may may relate to this topic:
=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~= Cybertelecom :: Federal Internet Law & Policy www.cybertelecom.org WOCKEY WIKI - Washington Hockey Wiki wockey.stikipad.com
participants (3)
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Kevin Guidry -
Michel J. Menou -
Robert Cannon