PINAL COUNTY LIBRARY DISTRICT NEWSLETTER PCLD Newsletter : May 2017 - Aug 2017 : 1 Director’s Column By Denise Keller Library District Updates The e-rate applications have been filed on time, and now I am waiting to re- ceive the notice of funding. It was quite an interesting process this year, since the Universal Service Administration Company (USAC) announced the availability of construction funds for broadband build-out to rural areas. The time between the announcement and the deadline for e-rate applications was very short, so I was not able to send out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit bids from all telecom compa- nies. Instead, we sent a Request for Quote to all the vendors on the Arizona State Master Contract. Only two quotes were received, Cox and CenturyLink. Cox quoted only Florence and Coo- lidge, where we already have 20 mg connections. CenturyLink quoted fiber for all locations, but the final monthly cost would have been beyond the Li- brary District budget, and certainly not something other entities in the rural areas could afford. The second quote from CenturyLink was for DSL in Ari- zona City, Mammoth and Oracle. Ari- zona City will entail construction costs of $41,000 which will be entirely cov- ered by e-rate and the funds set aside by the Arizona Corporation Commis- sion. Mammoth and Oracle will not require construction. Each of these three libraries will be bumped up to 20 mgs, which should help to speed up public access com- puters some. The broadband build-out initiative will continue for another year, so perhaps we will be able to reassess the landscape in the fall and do a full RFP and solicit bids from all providers. Staff at the Arizona State Library told me we were the only library in the state to file a construction application on time. I understand that many school districts did make the filing deadline, so we may be able to take advantage of that next year. We are in the “testing” phase for the Polaris upgrade. There are a few librar- ies helping us test the system, including libraries that are not in our county net- work (i.e. AJ, CAC, Casa Grande). We have not heard back on any problems other than a printer that would not print. The next step is for us to decide when we want to do the cut-over. Po- laris would like to get this on their schedule very soon. We are concerned about how to schedule Polaris down- time since most libraries have continu- ing summer reading programs. We are trying for open dates in the second and third weeks of August, since June is Summer Reading and July is taken up by vacations. As soon as we have a couple of dates we will poll the librar- ies to see what will work best. We filled the Library Technician posi- tion. Our new staff member is Victoria Murphy and she is doing a great job keeping up with cataloging. I am so grateful to my staff for keeping a cheerful and “can do” attitude, and pitching in to help each other. In spite of that, you may see a little slow-down in our turn-around times. Of course, the end of the fiscal year will cause even more of a backlog, so please be patient while we struggle to get things back to normal. 2017 Issue 2 May 2017 - July 2017 Gale Kids InfoBits has a graphical interface that gives young students an easy way to find age–appropriate information. InfoBits is continuously updated to match elementary-level curricula and is geared to fit the needs of today’s young learners. InfoBits has books, magazines, news, videos, and more than 13,000 images. Easy-to-navigate search re- sults allow kids to focus their search. The modern design and simple navi- gation makes it easy for kids to ex- plore content and gain comfort with database searching. Users can limit search results by content type, con- tent level, and other limiters. To Find Gale Kids InfoBits go to: pinalcountyaz.gov/library Click the RESEARCH tab, then look for it in the Homework Help section for Elemen- tary School. Contact your local pub- lic library to get a FREE library card.
