Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke today announced the award of two grants totaling $2,264,232 to Tincan under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). Tincan’s funding will enhance connectivity to the Spokane Public Library’s public access computers, establish or upgrade public computer centers at four city community centers, establish a training facility for Tincan programs, and increase public access computing through 7 non-profit partners.

The project stands on a strong foundation of existing partnerships. “We did not come together solely for this proposal” said Karen Michaelson, Tincan’s Executive Director, “we have been working with many of these organizations for over 15 years.”

Tincan’s partners in this project include the City of Spokane, Spokane Public Library, Northeast Community Center, East Central Community Center, West Central Community Center, Peaceful Valley Community Center, the YWCA, YMCA, Volunteers of America, Contract-Based Education, Crosswalk, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Outreach Center, SNAP’s business programs, and Internet Expressway (a local Internet provider).

It came as a great shock to us here at the library when the Spokane, Washington newspaper, “Spokesman Review,” decided it would no longer mail its publication; home delivery or the Internet will be the only options.

Now I understand about budget cuts, but really? What about all of those who don’t have access to the Internet, or just really want to hold it in their hands and they don’t live in the home delivery area?

Well, the inmates of the Washington Department of Corrections fall into that category (NO INTERNET). So along with all the inmates losing their personal subscriptions, we here in the library did as well. So even as we strive to provide the inmates with a touch of home news we have lost one of our more populated areas, Spokane.