McMinnville Library To Upgrade Communications System With Grant

McMinnville’s Magness Library will upgrade the building’s public internet and phone connection, thanks to a new grant.

Library Director Brad Walker said that the Technology Opportunities for the Public grant will allow the repair of the library’s outdated cabling. He said that the grant allowed the library to end up paying a fraction of the overall cost.

“That allows libraries to apply for training, hotspots, cellular charging tables, and internal connections, or any grouping of those as you want to do them,” Walker said. “And because we’re forty-one thousand we only have to pay 10 percent of that as a match, whatever we get, and it’s up to $20,000.”

Walker said that grants such as this allow the Magness Library to serve the public not only in books but also in technology. He said that the library helps provide internet access to those who may have difficulty accessing it on their own.

“Elderly people and some of the handicapped people, they all wanna come in and take some of the training because it does help,” Walker said. “Some of the people, which we still have a lot of people who don’t use computers a whole lot, they come in to try to get familiar with it to help them get jobs.”

Walker said the library runs training courses in teaching technological and internet literacy to individuals and groups. He said that internet literacy is vital in functioning well today, and can often act as a barrier to many.

“It’s always amazing, I had a gentleman not three weeks ago, he could do nothing and I had to set up a court meeting for him in California through Zoom on one of our laptops,” Walker said. “And I had to literally set it all up, and sit him down in front of the computer and walk him through it.”

Walker said that the library’s renovations come with both a better internet connection and a telephone line. He said now visitors can use the same internet router on personal devices rather than switching between floors.