. thinking of applying for federal broadband stimulus funding. That’s right, just published last Friday, Enhancing Broadband in Washington: Effective Means to Improve Connectivity and Awareness / Report of the Governor’s Broadband Advisory Council, July 17, 2009.

The report includes recommendations for broadband mapping, public-private partnering, Anchor Institutions, multi-purpose grant proposals, and broadband access and adoption programs all to provide the Governor with a framework for advising federal officials on the priorities of the State.

State librarian, Jan Walsh, was a member of the Governor’s Broadband Advisory Council (GBAC) from its inception. Her goal: to make sure Washington libraries had a place at the table. So how did libraries fair in the final version?

Read the rest of this entry »

… thinking of applying for federal broadband stimulus funding. That’s right, just published last Friday, Enhancing Broadband in Washington: Effective Means to Improve Connectivity and Awareness / Report of the Governor’s Broadband Advisory Council, July 17, 2009.

The report includes recommendations for broadband mapping, public-private partnering, Anchor Institutions, multi-purpose grant proposals, and broadband access and adoption programs all to provide the Governor with a framework for advising federal officials on the priorities of the State.

State librarian, Jan Walsh, was a member of the Governor’s Broadband Advisory Council (GBAC) from its inception. Her goal: to make sure Washington libraries had a place at the table. So how did libraries fair in the final version?

Read the rest of this entry »

Today the Washington State Library (WSL) released a new Broadband Stimulus Funding Resource page at http://www.secstate.wa.gov/library/libraries/projects/broadband/resources.aspx.

The page describes the role that we will play in assisting Washington libraries in their quest for broadband stimulus funding as administered by the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Specifically, our role is to facilitate information sharing and partnering between libraries and other applicant partners (e.g., vendors, non-profits). We will provide public information resources and make libraries aware of potential application partners.

We have decided not not to apply for broadband stimulus funding on behalf of Washington’s libraries. There are non-library applicants desiring to partner with libraries who have the capability to bring the broadband pipe to the library building. We don’t have that capability and that is what many libraries need.

On our Broadband Resources page we invite broadband stimulus funding applicants – those who desire to partner with Washington libraries — to send us abstracts of and links to their application proposals. We will post these on our resources web page and also distribute the information through library email lists and other communication channels.

Additionally, you will find links to resources both internal to the State Library and external that will be useful to applicants. For example, "must reads" such as the Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA) and BIP and BTOP applications are linked.

The Library Council of Washington adopted a resolution supporting libraries seeking broadband stimulus funding. We have not posted it on the Resources page but it is available to any library that requests it. Please send your request to me at [email protected]. And please check our advice to libraries in the "For Washington Libraries" section.

As always, we’d love to hear from you.