Showcasing Success Stories

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All across the United States, people are building elements of the Information Superhighway. Some are installing computers and obtaining interactive software in schools, libraries, museums, and community centers. Others are setting up online networks for nonprofit and public agencies at the community, regional, town, or city level. And still others are implementing plans to interconnect an entire State.

Every one of these people has an interesting story to tell -- when they first experienced their dream of joining the Information Superhighway, how they got their equipment, who taught them how to use it, how long it took to feel like a Superhighway pro, and most importantly, the people they met, the places they have "visited," and the things they have learned and experienced online.

When teachers talk about how the Information Superhighway has affected their classrooms, they relate stories of reawakening of students who at one time spent their days waiting for dismissal, but are now coming in early and giving up recesses -- just to get a few extra minutes online. Librarians speak of adults using their online facilities to learn new job skills. Community center administrators talk of once-lonely seniors who have made new friends and gotten a new lease on life through online chatrooms. Stories of how the Information Superhighway has improved lives are endless -- each inspiring in its own right. Stories of how institutions achieve access to the Superhighway, although peppered with unique components, are in large part quite similar.

Schools

If Chestnut Ridge Can Do It, Anybody Can

Yet, in this poor community, the school district believes that "Technology can be a catalyst and agent in changing the way teachers teach and students learn . . . [it is] the great equalizer, in a playing field, where unequal amounts of money are spent on educating children," according to Kathy Popp, technical coordinator for the district. Thus, the school district is making every effort to ensure that students get the technological resources they need to be productive members of society, and they're succeeding. They are succeeding because they have built partnerships with the local community, and have spent a lot of one-on-one time with community leaders -- both supporters and opponents of access.

The school district searches for resources wherever they can find them. In 1993, three teachers received a GTE Pioneering Partners Award that included 5 free hours of Internet access per month for each recipient. During the school year, a score of teachers and administrators have been trained with those free hours. In 1995, the district aggressively pursued another Pioneer Award, simply to get three more accounts with 5 hours each of monthly Internet time. It won again, and teachers traveled more than 30 miles to the local university's crowded computer labs to use the accounts. Some teachers also purchased America Online time and paid the toll charges themselves just to get the technology in their classrooms.

The commitment of the school to connectivity was further evidenced when funds were budgeted for a 56-Kbps line. Funding the line meant that a high school teacher position was left unfilled and supplies were cut. To get additional funds teachers teamed with a neighboring school district to create an Internet course for teachers and librarians. The course will be taught by teachers in the school and take place in summer 1996.

Finally, in partnership with Bedford County Library, the school district applied for a Goals 2000 grant. The $25,000 award will pay for Internet access during the 1995-1996 school year. It may be touch and go, but if this school district can do it, anybody can.

Educators in Chestnut Ridge see unlimited use of the Information Superhighway as the books they don't have on their library shelves, the experts they would like to have on staff, a means to bring people together for retraining, a means for breaking out of the professional isolation of living and working in a small town, and, most importantly, as a means for children to be on the same playing field as those in more privileged communities.

Inner-City Children Take a Front Seat to Learning

Three years ago the Rosa Parks School was ready to close. Enrollment was falling. Test scores were the lowest in the archdiocese. Faculty morale was declining. Even the building itself seemed about to collapse. In spring 1994, MCI Communications Corporation adopted Rosa Parks, beginning a three-step program to improve curriculum, integrate technology, and expand the school's communications infrastructure.

Already, the school has seen dramatic results. Standardized test scores are up -- way up. Where low scores once drew the scrutiny of State and local regulators, students at Rosa Parks now perform above average within their high-achieving parochial school district. One class, tracked over 3 years, raised their percentile rank against other students in the archdiocese an amazing 20 percentage points. Morale is high -- among students and among faculty -- and enrollment is rising.

Technology is the linchpin of this effort, but it is seen as a tool to draw students into the larger curriculum, not a cure-all. At first, in fact, the school focused on low-tech basics: training teachers; new textbooks; a more integrated role for parents; and curriculum that emphasizes reading and math, but includes violence prevention, child abuse prevention, and tolerance education programs. On this solid foundation was constructed a technical infrastructure almost unheard of for an inner-city school. In summer 1994, multimedia computers with a full suite of software and telephone access were placed in the classrooms. One computer -- centrally located in the computer lab -- got a dedicated phone line and the desktop video system used during Mrs. Parks' visit.

The teachers, truly the keys to this project, responded by making the computers part of the curriculum from day one. The computers have become a classroom focal point. They demand skills and serious thought from students, and reward them with new, almost unlimited vistas and opportunities. Students who rarely travel beyond the city limits find themselves with the world at their fingertips. They e-mail friends across America and around the globe. They access vast and growing libraries of information. And they glimpse the great distances their hard work and new skills can carry them.

The next step is full connectivity with other schools in MCI's SchoolLink network and global connectivity. Despite the hardships many of them face every day, when the students of Rosa Parks travel the Superhighway they proudly ride -- like the legend whose name their school carries -- in the front.

Saving Money and Improving Educational Opportunities

Today, the districtwide interactive video network regularly serves 3,000 users and is available to another 54,000 -- students, teachers, parents, and other members of the Guilford County community. In addition to enhancing academic opportunities for students, the network is also being used for staff development, PTA meetings, community economic development conferences, and training area public health professionals.

Because of the network, distance learning labs allow Guilford County to provide course equity both locally and statewide. Students have access to courses previously unavailable due to low enrollment at their school or the lack of a qualified instructor. As an additional benefit, the network has resulted in real cost savings for the school district by eliminating unnecessary travel, reducing busing, and through more efficient use of staff time. For instance, a recent 30-minute curriculum planning meeting of three people on the network saved 72 miles in travel reimbursement, more than 3 staff hours of professional salaries, and the equivalent in lost productivity time. Students learning French IV over the network are no longer bused to their class, which saves salary, fuel, and maintenance costs.

Guilford County got its network off the ground with $1.7 million in local funds. The superintendent of schools and the school board were so committed to the project that they revised the entire school system budget to fund network construction. At a time when State funding was uncertain, Guilford County went to the forefront and began construction.

Guilford County remains fully committed to promoting the values of the Information Superhighway and is striving to expand its capabilities. The county is currently implementing a pilot project to add Internet access to a high school, middle school, elementary school, education center, and administrative office. School district officials are constantly reaching out to every segment of their community to encourage use of and support for the network through media coverage, special events, PTA meetings, open house demonstrations, and professional conferences. In 1995, the National School Boards Association selected Guilford County as the premier school of the year.

Turning an Inner-City School Around

Like many urban school districts, Union City has faced many educational challenges. In 1989, it was identified as one of New Jersey's 30 special-needs districts for education. Student dropout and transfer rates were high, and standardized test scores were well below State averages. When the State investigated Union City schools, the district received failing grades in 40 out of the 52 areas studied. Union City was given 5 years to improve its schools or have them taken over by the State.

Union City responded by creating a curriculum that supports the development of thinking, reasoning, and collaboration skills. Under this plan, students learn by doing, and are expected to demonstrate proficiencies by writing research papers and completing projects. Simultaneously, the school board made significant changes in the physical environments of its schools. A bond initiative passed by Union City residents helped the district refurbish all of the schools and many individual classrooms, and funds from New Jersey's Quality Education Act provided the capital needed to install 775 computers in the district -- establishing an 11-to-1 ratio of students to computers.

This program was created through a partnership of the Bell Atlantic Corporation, the Union City Board of Education, and the Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology. The 2-year trial began in September 1993. Computers were supplied at the school and in the homes of all of Christopher Columbus' 135 seventh-grade students and their teachers. Teachers were trained on use of the computer systems and they trained the parents. The technology enabled participants to communicate between school and home, and use a set of basic software tools to carry out a wide range of curriculum activities. Later, very high-bit rate digital subscriber lines and audio/video server technology were integrated into the network. Participants gradually became accustomed to using computers by being introduced only to e-mail in the first year. During the second year, additional multimedia resources were integrated into the school and its curriculum.

Recent test scores and other data demonstrate just how successful the program has been. Student test scores for Christopher Columbus School on New Jersey's Early Warning Test in reading, math, and writing are now more than 10 points above the statewide average -- across the board. Absenteeism by students and teachers is very low, and the dropout rate is now almost nonexistent (transfers into the school are high, and transfers out are very low). Parents who could not speak English just 2 years ago are now actively involved with their children's use of the computers at home and frequently send messages to teachers and the school principal.

Computer-Assisted Learning Brings Educational Opportunities to a Largely Immigrant Population

The scene in every classroom at Clear View is the same: 10 children working on computers, another 10 receiving instruction from the teacher, and the remaining students working at their desks using manipulatives. This is a school where English is a second or new language for 68 percent of its 550 students. Since 1991, Clear View -- a Cox Communications International Model Technology School -- has been completely networked with fiber, satellite, and cable. Every class has a technology component, thus, even the youngest kindergarten children use computers at some basic level. By first grade Clear View students use computers to activate a LEGO town that they build from scratch, and fourth through sixth graders are experiencing global awareness through the Internet.

Clear View's technological transformation is in part due to a joint venture with San Diego University. The school was originally designed as a professional development school where student teachers could get direct experience in an academic environment. To accommodate this, the school includes a classroom where one-way glass permits student teachers to observe classes.

Clear View's principal, Ginger Hovenic, deserves much of the credit for the technology in the school's classrooms. She has pursued and been awarded public funds for educational restructuring grants, as well has donations and support from the business community. Her desire to provide "the best education possible for ALL students" has motivated partnerships with businesses and foundations that have in turn resulted in creative projects that have opened the schoolhouse doors: Clear View students have communicated and shared weather data with other students around the Nation via computer modem; written and published a book about Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, in collaboration with a San Diego State University history professor; put scientific methods to work using an electron microscope located 26 miles away, under the direction of a biology professor at San Diego State; and exchanged thoughts and research about V-E Day, World War II, with students in Rhode Island, Nebraska, and England. The school has also formed such innovative programs as parenting skills workshops and voice mail for each teacher, which provides a 24-hour-a-day communication link among teachers, parents, and students for homework assignments, school events, and other news. Curriculum innovations -- such as the families program, where students are regrouped for 45 minutes each week into 25 K-6 groups to study social, environmental, and global issues -- build skills to facilitate student success in and out of the schoolroom.

Techniques developed and successfully employed at Clear View are being disseminated through a staff development program that trains educators from across the Nation in the school's assessment and technology innovations.

Progressing to Smart Classrooms

Located in an agricultural strip, halfway between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, the school district serves 7,800 K-8 students through nine K-6 elementary schools and two junior high schools. More than half of the district's students come from low-income households, and approximately 30 percent have limited-proficiency or no English at the time they register for school. The school district turned to computer-assisted instruction in part as a means to fundamentally change and improve the way these children learn. Begun in 1983, the move to smart classrooms has been a long process, but results have been phenomenal:

• Students have exhibited significant increases in achievement levels.

• In 1992, eighth-grade students scored at the 90th percentile and above in math, history/social studies, science, and writing.

• Students scored 24 scaled points above the State average.

• Critical thinking skills, measured through several different exams, rose from the 40th to the 80th percentile.

• Parents, students, and teachers have a supportive and strong attitude toward technology. Average daily attendance has increased, and discipline problems have declined.

For Hueneme students, technology and connectivity provide an exciting learning environment for mastering educational basics while learning skills that prepare them for the future. At the junior high, for example, each day begins with a live, schoolwide video broadcast of the day's events that is scripted, produced, recorded, and transmitted over the internal video network by the students.

Hueneme schools now have nearly one computer per student distributed across classrooms and the library, TV monitors in each room, numerous videodisk players, and VCRs, as well as two dedicated cable channels, donated by the local cable company, that enable videoconferencing and broadcasting. Future plans call for Internet connectivity to all classrooms (currently the library has access).

The benefits of technology and connectivity in the Hueneme district have been made possible through the combined support of the district administration, school board, teachers, parents, community leaders, and funds from the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), which is administered by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). District superintendent, Dr. Ron Rescigno, has provided vision, leadership, and moral support to the critical agents of change, teachers.

Students as Creators in an Inner-City School

Because of the emphasis on creating materials, Ralph Bunche students know a great deal more about issues such as copyright than most children their age and many adults. These issues are dealt with largely on an informal basis, and are incorporated into projects as part of the learning experience. For example, the opportunity to discuss ownership of material and appropriate uses of others' products arose when a student creating his own homepage wanted to illustrate it with a character from The Simpsons television program. As creators themselves, these students are getting real-life exposure to and developing a sensitivity toward copyright/ownership issues.

The Ralph Bunche program began in 1986, when teachers started to experiment with computer-assisted teaching as a means of invigorating the learning process. The school soon became one of the first in the Nation to adapt online technology to the classroom environments of very young students. Today, 250 of the 650 students at Ralph Bunche Elementary are learning within the framework of a computer-assisted curriculum in the school's "mini-school" -- a computer-filled classroom that is in effect a school within a school. Although the mini-school is available to all children in the fourth, fifth, or sixth grades, classroom space is limited. Children who win places in the mini-school represent a cross section of the school's student population -- mostly black or Latino, some with learning disabilities. In the 9 years since program implementation, these students have scored substantially better on standardized math tests and slightly better on reading tests than their peers who study in conventional classroom settings.

The network environment gives students and teachers seamless, user-friendly access to both local area network (LAN) and wide area network (WAN) resources. Two computer rooms/labs are in place, and seven classrooms have been targeted for installation of at least one computer each, networked within the school.

The mini-school was created largely through the efforts of a group of dedicated teachers who worked tirelessly in their free time to get the project off the ground, and funded through Federal and corporate grants and donations, including the Department of Commerce/NTIA's TIIAP program. Among other donations, in 1973, the school received $100,000 in computers from Apple Computer. Today the program is in large part funded by Columbia University; however, it also receives $15,000 per year from the National Science Foundation for a high-speed data line that sends and receives electronic information four times faster than the fastest modems. Although some teachers have taken formal computer classes to learn to use network technologies, teacher training mostly occurred on an ad hoc basis -- teachers work with others to develop and implement projects.

Every Computer is Equipped with a Teenager

The project began with just four computers on the network. The next year the students networked a classroom, then the whole school, and finally the whole district. The system grew from a LAN in each school, to a WAN when the individual LANs were wired together, to a WAN hooked into the Internet. In the process, students pulled more than 187,000 feet of twisted-pair wire, installed software, and taught other students, teachers, and staff how to use the system and system applications. In the words of Liberty High School technology instructor Don Robertson, "Every computer here is equipped with a teenager."

What is most interesting about the Issaquah story is what the program has done for the students. Take the case of an "average" teenager, a youngster who was considered a problem student. By the time he had reached middle school he had set an all-time school record for being detained after class. When caught breaking into his school's computer system he was given a choice -- join the team or . . . He joined the team, quickly learned the intricacies of pulling cable and other network implementation requirements, was soon teaching his former instructors in system use, and began teaching a software class at a local computer store. Today he is working part-time for Microsoft and finishing high school at the same time. He, like many graduates of the past, will be in demand at local high-tech companies when he has completed his education.

Disabled Children Enter the Mainstream in a Charlestown, MA, Public School

The story of one of Harvard-Kent's third-grade boys is an example. The young man is a wizard on the computer. He types quickly, is able to complete many assignments in the mainstream curriculum -- including a short story about a striped Easter bunny, complete with color images. Yet, this same young man has difficulty organizing his thoughts and cannot write legibly. Although he drafts writing assignments by hand, he finishes his work on the computer, incorporating corrections from his teacher. The computer helps him with structure and spelling, and the boy says, "It's fun. . . . All you have to do is push the buttons."

"I can't really tell by looking at the students which kids have reading or learning problems," says Peggy Coyne, director of professional services for the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), a Peabody, Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for individuals with disabilities through innovative uses of computer technology.

Since 1991, CAST has been working with the Boston Public School system and the Special Education Technology Resource Center, Boston Public Schools at Emmanual College, to find ways to successfully, and cost-effectively, educate students with disabilities. Harvard-Kent is a part of CAST's Equal Access project -- a program that uses advanced computer technology to make regular public school curricula accessible to all students. According to the school's principal, Jack Halloran, ". . . the Equal Access project has made [my] school a place 'for kids.' By adding the computer to [my] teachers' tool box, CAST has given instructors a powerful tool that allows them to modify programs to meet all kids' needs, regardless of ability."

Total Integration into the Educational Process

In 1990, Dalton instituted a technology plan that has since brought more than 250 computers, 15 videodisk players, 8 flatbed scanners, 10 laser printers, 35 Deskwriters, and 10 CD-ROM drives into their teaching environment. Typically, there are 4 to 6 machines in every classroom, with another 10 in the art/architecture lab and 6 to 8 machines in each of two public computer labs. All machines are networked.

What the students are doing with these machines gives a real glimpse of the classrooms of the 21st century:

• A sixth-grade social studies class is on an architectural dig in the Middle East. Their assignment is to uncover ancient Assyrian artifacts at the site, analyze each artifact, and formulate and defend a thesis about the nature of the place and the people who lived there. The computer simulates the sounds and sights of the operation; one by one, spearheads and ivory pieces appear on the screen.

• A 10th-grade English class is reading Macbeth. With a few keystrokes they access illustrations of how artists have depicted Lady Macbeth, including scenes from Hollywood interpretations, which play out over their monitors. A few more keystrokes take them to various essays on the play.

• An astronomy class is calculating the brightness and temperature of stars based on what they see on Palomar plates -- grayish films, sprinkled with dark points of light representing stars and nebulae that were recorded by the 48-inch telescope at California's Palomar Observatory -- and on what they can glean from a computer program called Voyager.

• Throughout the school, on a average day, more than 400 individual students and faculty members log in to the local area network for conferences related to specific courses or current events. Recently, these extensive and sensitive exchanges among students and between students and faculty have covered such topics as the Rabin assassination, affirmative action, the Million Man March, and free speech vs. civil speech. On a typical day, 19 hours of activity are logged over the LAN.

The Dalton technology plan was the brainchild of a collaborative effort of The Dalton School, and the Institute for Learning Technologies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Funding for the project has been possible in large part by a gift of approximately $3,720,000 from the Phyllis and Robert Tishman Family Fund; in-kind contributions of more than $1.3 million; and a donation of $180,000 from the DeWitt Wallace-Readers Digest Fund. Finally, a grant from the National Science Foundation made possible the installation of two radio telemetry stations at the Black Rock Forest.

Although few schools have the financial and human resources to implement the kind of learning environment that has been developed at Dalton, the program is beginning to benefit others. The school has designed and implemented several highly successful educational prototypes that will be shared with other schools:

• Archaeotype -- the networked multimedia archaeological excavation simulation designed to teach social studies and related disciplines;

• Ecotype -- a multimedia paleontological field research simulation used to teach middle school earth and life sciences;

• Project Galileo -- a cross-platform integration of sky-simulation programs and professional astronomical databases for 11th- and 12th-grade astronomy courses; and

• Hypermedia -- a hypermedia environment for use in English and foreign language curricula.

Traveling with Scientists on the Jason Project

The Jason Project was established in 1989 with the intent of providing a means to excite and engage students in science and technology and professional development opportunities for teachers. The project does this by developing annual programs of science and technology curricula, classroom broadcasts, and teacher training, including the 2-week interactive electronic field trips during which students are true participants in scientific expeditions. Since 1989, the Jason Project has taken students and teachers on research expeditions via satellite to: the Great Lakes to examine two perfectly preserved War of 1812 schooners; the Galápagos Islands to explore the animals, birds, and marine species Charles Darwin wrote about; Baja, California, to examine gray whales, tubeworms, and other organisms that live off hydrothermal vents; and the Central American country of Belize to study the rain forest.

An Interactive Curriculum to Return At-Risk Children to the Classroom

All of CIS's core curricula are presented in a hypermedia training format, which utilizes the power of personal computers to combine full-motion video, slides, text, training manuals, group discussions, individual workbooks, and interactive exercises.

A Public-Private Partnership that Encourages Students to Study Current Events

The WILX-TV program was created by the station's general manager, Grant Santimore, with assistance from Roger McCoy. In initiating this program, the station intended to explore using the Internet system to expand its ties with students and teachers in mid-Michigan schools who had access to computers, modems, and the Internet in their classrooms. Their idea was to develop an educational outreach program that would help students and teachers learn more about contemporary news events, have greater access to the daily flow of information, and communicate more efficiently and effectively with the world outside the classroom.

Seven schools were selected to participate in the program. Each was provided with complimentary e-mail addresses and access to America Online. Over the course of the year, teachers and students used their complimentary America Online accounts to access thousands of daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals; the Internet; World Wide Web; weather information; educational software; downloadable software files; live conferences; message boards; and much more. In addition, they e-mailed questions to the TV-10 staff, the White House, the Governor, and numerous other people and places in the United States and around the world.

By using America Online services and computers, teachers report that students developed stronger independent learning skills when it came to finding information from the program's database. Weekly quiz scores rose dramatically over the course of the year, and both teachers and parents noted that students became more aware of contemporary news events and how they shaped their everyday lives because the quizzes encouraged them to spend more time watching news programs and reading the newspaper. WILX-TV is now expanding the program to other mid-Michigan schools and has recently launched its own Web homepage.

Student Collaboration Through the Global Schoolhouse Project

The students' goal was to read Earth in the Balance by Vice President Al Gore and then conduct ground water pollution studies in their communities. They were given 6 weeks to complete the project and prepare for a videoconference with students from other schools to compare findings. Beginning three weeks before the demonstration, students met in 2 weekly videoconference rehearsals over the Internet to give progress reports and show video clips of their research.

The Global Schoolhouse was established to demonstrate how people and information resources on the Internet can be used as a classroom tool for research and as a medium for interactive collaborative learning.

In addition to its administrative and educational benefits, in a number of areas the Global Schoolhouse is providing community access to school resources. Some schools and network projects are encouraging parents to become involved and have offered access via dialup accounts to school systems. Homework assignment archives, schedules, calendars, lunch menus, etc., are just some of the things that can be made publicly available through this network. Additionally, teachers are more accessible via electronic mail for parent/teacher conferences.

Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR) staff provide ongoing training and support for the various Internet Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (NIDR) tools and other software used by the project through workshops, onsite visits to schools, online real-time sessions with students using video conferencing, and audio conferencing.

Established in 1993, the Global Schoolhouse was funded in part by the National Science Foundation, as well as many local and national businesses.

Libraries

As libraries move in this direction, the services they deliver will increasingly relate to the delivery and management of electronic content created and stored both locally and well beyond the library's four walls to other parts of the globe. Libraries have always played an essential public role by providing access to knowledge and information from a diverse range of sources and viewpoints. They have also served historically as part of the educational community, for example, working with school librarians to provide homework assistance to students. As a consequence, library constituencies will be from both the local community and the world at large. Some of the ways this Nation's libraries have sought to continue delivering these services and meet these missions while successfully entering and contributing to the Information Superhighway are described below.

Seniors Teach at the State-of-the-Art Computer Lab and a Community Builds its Network at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

PLCMC has also set up career centers that carry job listings and classified ad sections from all over the State and the Nation, plus the full range of education information.

PLCMC serves 570,000 residents and 3,000 nonresidents of the county, making it the largest library system in the Carolinas. It was named the 1995 National Library of the Year by Library Journal because of its outstanding service to the community, creativity, innovation in coping with the changing needs of its clientele, and leadership in creating programs that can be emulated by other libraries. Each year county residents pay $26.34 per capita to support PLCMC's nearly $15 million operating budget. In addition, they have consistently passed bond issues for the expansion of the library to meet demand from the growing population served (60 percent of area residents have library cards).

The Virtual Lab opened on April 3, 1995. Accessible to the entire community through equal access use policies, the lab showcases new information and communication technologies and offers a full schedule of hands-on workshop and training opportunities. Twenty high-performance workstations are equipped with more than 70 applications for drawing, animation, desktop publishing, scanning, imaging, multimedia, and full Internet connectivity. Patrons gain free access to these workstations either by scheduling time in advance in 2-hour blocks or as walk-ins with a 1-hour time limit. Also available are more than 200 CD-ROM titles on topics ranging from science to history to art to music.

PLCMC also directs "Charlotte's Web" -- a regional community computer network. Charlotte's Web's vision is to ensure that all citizens in the area have access to education information and communications resources to help make the region a better place to live, grow, and prosper. Since June 1994, Charlotte's Web has provided 7-day-a-week access to a wide range of information and communication services and resources. Content is often created by local organizations that have been trained by Charlotte's Web staff to electronically publish their information, which gives them a stake in the network as well as a responsibility to keep their content offerings current.

Local dial-ins into Charlotte's Web jumped from 1,149 in January 1995 to 9,300 in September 1995, and the average user online time has nearly tripled. Access to Charlotte's Web is also provided through 74 public access terminals located at local library branches, neighborhood youth and senior centers, school classrooms, school libraries, health care facilities, and shelters. A User Agreement and Acceptable Use Policy includes statements on topics such as intellectual property protection, systems security, intellectual freedom, and assisting and guiding users on appropriate usage.

Startup funds for this project came from a $450,000 Department of Commerce/NTIA TIIAP matching grant, as well as other State and local funds. Charlotte's Web depends heavily on the efforts of scores of volunteers who do everything from clerical work to training to systems programming to content management to repairing donated computers for placement back into the community.

Maryland Libraries Go Online with Sailor®

DLDS provides full-time staff to coordinate the project and plays a crucial leadership role for the State library community. The University of Maryland provides essential technical expertise and resources such as servers and modem pools, and the Pratt Library hosts and supports the Sailor Operations Center. Sailor's successful collaborations are partly attributable to the creation of an implementor's group and task groups. Approximately 50 public, college and university, school, and special libraries from across the State provide volunteers to these working groups.

Publicly accessible since July 1994, Sailor® provides Marylanders with access to local and State information and Internet resources. Access can be achieved through local libraries, schools, homes, offices, and even prisons. It will soon be available also in public kiosks, in shopping malls, and in Baltimore's trendy Inner Harbor. Marylanders are making use of Sailor® in droves -- over a 7-day period in September 1995, the network was accessed 148,000 times. At any given time an average of 158 people are using Sailor®.

Information about State government, cities, counties, communities, libraries, and education resources, as well as subject-oriented information on a wide range of topics, is available through the network. Some links within this classification scheme are to the Maryland Poison Center; the Maryland Education Technology Network; a job hotline; a State guide to divorce laws; and the Regional Child Care Referral. A "free space" encourages Marylanders to share information they feel would be of interest to others in the State, such as meeting announcements and newsletters (advertisements and appeals for money are prohibited).

Across the State, the network has stimulated and increased the breadth of library automation. Sailor® has also improved the speed and range of reference services by integrating print and electronic resources to handle patron queries, through online demonstrations, and by offering training classes. Several library systems across the State are working with county and city government to post their information and to offer their services electronically. Sailor® also is a partner in the State's effort to build the Maryland Electronic State, and is providing public access to the World Wide Web homepages that State agencies have recently been required to develop. In addition, many school systems are beginning to integrate Sailor® into their curricula.

Initial funding for Sailor® came from a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant under the Department of Education's Public Library Construction and Technology Enhancement program. The network has been implemented by Maryland librarians and volunteers. A master trainer program is helping librarians across the State learn about the system and how to teach others to use it. Libraries themselves are providing one-on-one training, as well as sessions, to members of the public -- including school faculty and students -- who wish to learn about the system.

Getting Patrons on the Internet, Reaching Out to the Community, and Developing Community Information Resources

SPL's 200 public access terminals are available in 20 neighborhoods and 2 housing projects throughout the city. It is the first public library in the Nation to provide such extensive free public access to patrons. In addition, SPL has provided extensive small-group Internet training sessions for more than 2,000 patrons, ensuring that the public terminals don't lay idle. SPL staff also conduct outreach to senior groups, community-based organizations, job fairs, and other forums to teach about practical and relevant Internet applications. Thousands have gained access to and experience with the information network as a result.

A homeless man, self-described as a "homeless hacker," became so skilled in using SPL's online network that he was invited to interview with a company in Los Angeles. The company hired him on the spot as a contract programmer and arranged housing for him.

SPL is also developing and guiding Seattle-specific content through construction of a database of community organizations, a "Seattle Facts" database, and a calendar of community events. The database of community organizations has become a "virtual Rolodex of Seattle," with information on social service and arts groups, government agencies, clubs, and other community resources. The electronic version is now twice as large as its print predecessor. In addition, the SPL program provides access to the Washington State Legislature Public Access System, the City of Seattle Public Access Network, the city's geographic information system, other important local community documents, and Federal databases. This electronic resource is used far more than its print correlates had been.

SPL's recently established Center for Technology in the Public Library -- an R&D institute dedicated to applying information technologies to public libraries -- put the Information Superhighway in the hands of Seattleites today. SPL also provides -- with permission -- an excerpt from the brochure "Child Safety on the Information Superhighway," from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The document gives guidance on youth safety precautions associated with computer networks, such as protecting youth privacy, parental control, and disseminating and receiving personal and other information over networks.

Patrons Learn Usage Responsibilities and Help Build the Community Freenet

Library staff received 7 months of training before Internet-accessible terminals were made available to the public -- administrators believed it would have been inappropriate to offer public access until library staff were adequately trained and prepared to handle queries for technical and informational assistance. A program of public instruction began in March 1995.

Partners include the library, the University of Notre Dame, and CicNet, a not-for-profit Internet provider for the northern Midwest States. In one component of this partnership, the library was able to leverage the talents and labor of a Notre Dame student in setting up its World Wide Web server and pages.

The library's Web pages provide access to SJCPL branches, local high school homepages, and several databases including: an online catalog from three area public libraries that contains more than 500,000 bibliographic records; Community Connection, which provides information on more than 1,200 community organizations and services; an index to abstracts from the South Bend Tribune's metro section; a monthly events calendar; detailed information on each State Senator and Representative; a magazine and newspaper subject guide; Infofile, a database of common reference questions; and a database of more than 320 libraries across the globe that provide resources and services over the Internet. Public access is currently available through six terminals at the library's main branch and a single terminal in each of its seven branches.

The library is also a partner, host, and initiator of the Michiana Freenet, which serves the greater South Bend area, Elkhart, Indiana, and lower Michigan -- the first freenet in Indiana. Community groups contribute content by bringing information in machine-readable form, which SJCPL then loads onto the freenet. For example, the Health Communities Initiative link provides information on a program created by 100 community stakeholders who developed an action plan for a community-based health "building" system based on "understanding, collaboration, consensus, a long-term perspective, and common strategies."

Funding for St. Joseph programs has come from a combination of internal and external sources. Startup costs totaled $10,000, and ongoing costs include $237 per month for the leased line and $4,500 per year for network maintenance. MCI recently donated $53,000 to the freenet project.

Building an Electronic Information Network

The Three Rivers Freenet (TRFN) was developed with a Library Construction and Services Act grant. Primary drivers of TRFN have been the director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and two faculty members at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Pittsburgh (SLIS). The library director saw the freenet as a means of updating the traditional role of the public library. The faculty became involved because they were interested in creating a "living laboratory" where students can experience the networked environment in which they will work. As a consequence, SLIS provides in-kind contributions in technology and services to identify, load, and manage the content of the freenet. In addition, each of these drivers believed that TRFN could stimulate community economic development by providing information on local business opportunities and providing information about business to businesses. Other TRFN stakeholders include the State library, which provided 2 years of startup funding, private organizations, the city, the county, the Regional Asset District, and the Commission on the Future of Libraries in Allegheny County.

TRFN is a place for local community organizations and institutions to provide public service information, and provide county inhabitants with the opportunity to obtain gateway access to the Internet. Some of the information currently or soon to be made available on TRFN includes calendars of events, local weather, local government information -- notices, council minutes, phone numbers, and voter information -- bus schedules, city guides, movie and theater listings, restaurant reviews, and consumer health information.

TRFN's success is attributable to three factors: people in leadership positions in the city public library realized that the library had to change to remain relevant to the community and that part of this change required broad and intelligent use of information technology; leaders from SLIS believed that the school should play a more visible role in the community and also prepare its graduates to successfully enter the emerging networked age; and national publicity achieved by other cities that developed freenets served as a wake-up call to action. One participant contends that nothing would have occurred had it not been for the proactivity and support of the public library trustees and library director, realizing that the freenet was an important and crucial endeavor.

Professional Training and New Partnerships at the Utah Library Network

The Utah State Library has championed the project and also oversees database licensing contracts for the network and training for librarians, and provides connectivity matching grants to individual libraries. A central planning group was essential in bringing together librarians from across the State and from a wide assortment of library types to discuss information and service priorities, mutual interests and needs, and ways of cooperatively developing complementary databases. This collaboration has given each participant a window to the collections, activities, interests, and human resources of other institutions across the State. A training manual was created and integrated into a program that has so far trained 110 librarians. ULN firmly believes that ongoing professional training will be a fact of life and that institutions will need to invest both time and money to allow employees to learn and use new tools effectively.

Local partnerships were essential for creating informed and useful local connectivity. Unprecedented partnerships were developed between libraries, local governments, schools, and businesses to share connectivity and other infrastructure costs. Stakeholder collaborations succeeded best when there was a recognition that network access was a win-win situation for all participants.

Critical success factors identified by the ULN of use to other communities include: local technical expertise; introductory, advanced, and trainer training; time to learn; a positive attitude; and strong local leadership. Primary obstacles have been overcoming attitudinal and managerial barriers; managing the information resources available on the network; finding time to train, retrain, and use the network; and solving thorny policy issues such as what to charge and what to provide access to. Other challenges faced included convincing libraries and other stakeholders to participate, figuring out how to connect libraries and configure hardware, deciding what to place on the network, how to navigate within it, and remaining persistent in solving "a hundred and one problems" never before encountered.

The benefits, though, are many. In one small instance, an individual found information online that he shared with his dentist to solve a serious dental problem no one could figure out.

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