Nanty Glo Public Library and the rest of the Cambria County Library System will celebrate National Library Week April 14-20 with the arrival of new public access computers over the entire county library system.

Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's U.S. Library Program, Nanty Glo Library and 12 other libraries in the county library system have received a total of 66 state-of-the-art Gateway computers loaded with reference software. The computers are designed for a wide range of activities from word processing to Internet research and surfing.

According to Library Hotline, "The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's U.S. Library Program will have placed 40,000 computers in nearly 10,000 libraries in all 50 states by the end of 2003, the scheduled termination of the program. Training and installation are already complete in 25 states, as part of the $250 million commitment to bring public access computers, the Internet, and digital information to library patrons in low-income communities."

Besides Nanty Glo, libraries in Johnstown, Beaverdale, Carrolltown, Cresson, Ebensburg, Gallitzin, Hastings, Lilly, Northern Cambria, Patton, Portage, and Richland have already been offering free Internet access and the use of other computer applications to the public. This expansion of their services adds to the value of the public libraries' offerings.

Lyn Meek, Director of the Cambria County Library System, reports that the use of the current 30 public access computers is extremely high. "The new computers are so user-friendly, with lots of terrific features, that I expect our library to be even more popular." The gift to the Johnstown library includes a lab of computers for training staff and the public. Plans include using the computer lab for Cybercamp for elementary children as part of the Summer Reading Club. Also, a basic word-processing class will be the first public use of the room on Thursday, April 25. Register with the Reference Department.

PHOTOS: Top—New Nanty Glo librarian, Sharon Gallaher, left, has been an employee at the Nanty Glo Library since September 1998. She lives in Strongstown, is married with four children and three grandchildren. She was named to replace retiring Ann Gongloff, right, because of her experience at the library. Her goals for her tenure at the library are to have additional space added on to the library that can be used for office space and a meeting room for local organizations, and, "Just to keep the good library that Ann has built up for the past 22 years." Ann Gongloff, retired as of March 1, served for 22 years as librarian for the Nanty Glo Public library. "We started in one room, then we bought this building...I get choked up just thinking about it," she said. The librarians flank two of the four new computers, with a new printer at left.
Below—A patron at the library tries out one the new computers donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's U.S. Library Program.
Scroll down for additional photos. All photos by Judy Rose.

Kathryn (Vorhauer) Deetscreek, above left, has been a volunteer at the library for the past eight years. On right, two of the "actual" computers (as distinct from the monitors), on the floor. Each of the four new Gateway computers given to the library has a slim-line 17-inch monitor. They are "secure," meaning users can't change anything on the hard drive. All of the computers are Internet ready, but the connection must be initiated by a member of the library staff. All have special settings available for use by visually impaired patrons, and there are two alternate keyboards available for use in typing in Spanish (with accents, and special Spanish punctuation). Two of the computers are set up specifically for school children to use. They have zip drive and CD drives and floppy drives. All the computers are equipped with Labtech headphones instead of speakers. The two for student use primarily each are equipped with two sets of headphones each so kids can work together.

Right: Assistant librarian Janet Llewellyn.