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Hyconeechee Regional Library Receives Technology Grant The Hyconeechee Regional Library System is comprised of the three counties of Caswell, Person and Orange libraries. This does not include Chapel Hill Public Library. In June, the State Library awarded two 2009-2010 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grants to the Hyconeechee Regional Library System. With a Basic Equipment Grant in the amount of $8,410, the library system will purchase eight public computers. In Orange County, five computers will replace existing public workstations at the Orange County Main Library and one will be used to increase the total number of public workstations at the Cedar Grove Branch to five. The library system will be responsible for providing $1,263 in matching funds for this grant. A Planning grant in the amount of $20,000 will be used to work with a library consultant to develop a three-year Technology Plan for the regional library system. The library staff will work with Dr. Robert Burgin of RB Software & Consulting and Jeffery Campbell of UNC Libraries to develop this plan. The completed plan will include guiding principles for integrating technologies into library services, specific technology goals related to key areas of continued investment and new strategic opportunity; and guidelines for on-going maintenance and evaluation of library technologies. No matching funds are required for the Planning Grant. The work completed as part of the planning grant will not limit the County from setting a strategic direction or making a capital investment in technology to more closely align itself with the Chapel Hill system, should that be determined. Library Cooperation Summit— NC Public Library Director's Conference In August 2008 forty-three of the seventy-seven public library systems in North Carolina were represented at the Library Cooperation Summit in Boone, NC. At the summit the participants were asked to rank what type of cooperative projects would have the most positive impact on their library patrons. The top four projects were: 1) Affordable and accessible bandwidth available across the entire state. 2) Support for a statewide borrowing and delivery system 3) An Open Source Integrated Library System for all public libraries 4) A Netflix model for statewide borrowing and delivery system. Affordable and accessible bandwidth is becoming a top priority for libraries all over the country. In many areas of North Carolina, including northern Orange County, reliable bandwidth is not yet available. This is most evident at the Cedar Grove Branch where there have been several instances of dropped connections with the Time-Warner internet service provider, which affected branch operations with intermittent service for two months. Orange County IT Department worked closely with library staff and Time —Warner to address the situation. At present, service has been restored, but library and IT continue to monitor and evaluate long term service reliability. County management is also tracking grant opportunities through the federal economic stimulus package to help local governments leverage broadband infrastructure improvements. The Gates Foundation has recently launched a nationwide effort to collect detailed information about all public library internet connections. This effort, named the Broadband Assessment Project, will help the foundation and its partners raise awareness of the need for high-quality