A group of neighborhood folks have already begun working on that issue. They
are forming the Friends of Hosmer to keep the tech center open, first, and to
increase its hours to those of the library. Yes, a group of knowledgible
volunteers would help immeasurably, RT. If you have access--and I see your
working with Laura WW, then help he out here.
Wizard Marks, Central
R.T.Rybak wrote:
> Moving from big library issues to more focused ones:
>
> I'd love to get Wizard's, and others', take on what can be done to help keep
> the Internet area of Hosmer open longer hours.
>
> This is one of the best resources in the system for helping to close the
> Digital Divide but when I was in Hosmer last Saturday afternoon....when kids
> without access at home could have been using it for school work, or parents
> using it for training, it was closed.
>
> A great room filled with all those computers in a neighborhood with some of
> the city's lowest Internet penetration....closed in prime time.
>
> If we can't keep this open on Saturday afternoons, I imagine it's even
> harder to do it on evenings.
>
> Any thoughts on what can be done? Would there be a union issue if some of
> us with Internet contacts recruited volunteers for weekend training
> sessions?
>
> What about turning this over during hours when it isn't staffed to the
> Neighborhood Technology Consortium?
> (My pet cause; read about it at www.migizi.org)
>
> There are huge budget issues swirling around the libraries right now but
> it's important that we don't get solely focused on them that we let great
> resources sit unusued.
>
> R.T. Rybak
> Washburn Library
