Technology Planning

Current Technology Plan 2007-2010

The library’s principal strategy for technology development in the next four years will be to continue successful community partnerships with e-Polk, Inc., a local Internet authority, and other technology partners in the region, and the CMC Library Consortium, a consortium of public and academic libraries in Polk and Rutherford who share a library system provided by TLC.

The development of a Technology Plan for the Polk County Public Library was just the first step in what became a county-wide partnership to promote high speed broadband Internet access and training. The "e-community" plan created by the partnership is a great example of what technology planning can produce in the hands of people who are flexible, generous with their ideas, and possess a vision that extends beyond their own institutions.
In 2001, the North Carolina Rural Internet Access Authority launched a campaign to improve Internet access in North Carolina's rural counties. When Polk County was invited to choose an "e-Champion" to lead the local campaign, Library Director Mark Pumphrey, who had prepared a library technology plan for a Gates computer grant, saw it as an opportunity to fulfill the library's priority of digital literacy.

He enlisted a broad-based steering committee (known as e-Polk), and together they created a plan that assessed the community's Internet profile and identified goals in four areas: public access, connectivity, training/digital literacy, and web applications
(i.e. e-government).  The Polk County Public Library, as an e-Polk community partner, embraces these four technology goals as well.  We believe that these four goals equate to some of the goals of our library’s long-range plan, including access and equity, literacy, and lifelong learning. 

Public access and digital literacy have been advanced through e-Polk efforts, grants from the Authority, and partnerships with local organizations. In addition, Polk County plans to work with e-Polk to improve county services through web-based applications and economic development.

e-Polk's greatest accomplishment, however, is PANGAEA, a connectivity project that has created a seven-mile fiber optic cable linking the library and other institutions to the high-speed broadband corridors that connect larger urban areas. PANGAEA won a stunning $375,000 grant from the Rural Internet Access Authority, and its potential to generate revenue for its own operation and expansion bodes well for the future.   Since the initial fiber project began, extensions into Rutherford County and South Carolina have begun, funded by grant agencies as diverse as the Golden Leaf Foundation, Advantage West, the ERC, and the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.  Within the period of this technology plan, our community network will be linked to the national and international Internet superhighway because of the technological integrity of our local network. 

Through the CMC Consortium, the library has benefited from regular enhancements and upgrades of its library system, a more efficient regional ILL network, opportunities for training in library system management, technical support from the Systems Administrator of the consortium, who is based at ICC-Spindale, opportunities for group purchase discounts for technology items, enhancements stemming from joint grant writing efforts, better vendor support from a larger ILS company, and increased cooperation generally with the college library and the public libraries in Rutherford County. 
New equipment that will be added to the new Main Library building during the period of this Technology Plan includes:

• replacement of sixteen public Internet access computer workstations upgraded or replaced in 2006 (twelve in the computer lab and four in the children's library). with two networked printers (one in each location).
• teleconferencing equipment (equipment control console, ceiling mounted monitor, cameras with tilt/zoom, graphics camera; video chalkboard, video/playback equipment, portable video slide projector, portable DVD player, DVD recorder).
• a presenter's station for the computer lab or for public computer management software.
• wall-mounted projection screen for the computer lab.
• RFID antennas, server, and peripherals (printers, desensitizers, resensitizers, etc.).
• sound equipment, including public address system and lectern.
• automated drop-down projection screen for community meeting room.
• one computer workstation for each of the two tutor/study rooms.
• two additional staff computer workstations at the circulation service desk, with receipt printers.
• a surveillance system including eight cameras expandable to sixteen at the Main Library in Columbus.
• a surveillance system including one camera on each of three floors at the Saluda Branch Library. 

Services to be provided during the period of this Technology plan include:

• telephone, fax and email reference services.
• Internet and email access onsite at the library, in the Public Internet Access Center.
• an online public access catalog including information on the library's holdings and linked to other CMC Library Consortium member library catalogues.
• onsite and remote access via a password to the NC-LIVE statewide reference databases, downloadable books and audiobooks, and other NC LIVE online resources; as well as other statewide online resources such as NC KNOWS, Heritage Quest, Ancestry, and Overdrive. 
• access to standalone reference databases and word processing at the reference computer workstation.
• access to literacy software at a dedicated literacy workstation.
• Access to genealogy software at a dedicated genealogy and local history workstation.
• access to information about the library and its services maintained on the library's website.

Additional technology infrastructure to be maintained during the period of this plan includes:

• a Terminal Server to connect to the circulation and cataloging software modules at the main library in Columbus and the OPAC at the branch library in Saluda to the CMC Library Consortium server in Spindale, NC.
• participation in the PANGAEA Community Network using wireless technology and fiber optic cable to link both the library and individual library users to the Internet via a signal tower at the top of Tryon Peak to a jointly-funded router located at the Polk County Sheriff's Department.
• Support of a Wi-Fi network in each of the two library buildings (main library in Columbus and branch library in Saluda) for laptop users.

Staff at the Polk County Public Library will continue to use the following additional existing technologies to help meet the information needs of library users, and to assure that the library is managed efficiently and effectively:

• an electronic link to our primary vendor for new acquisitions via the Internet for electronic ordering.
• access through NCLIN to the OCLC Interlibrary Loan Network.
• automated cataloging and circulation, and systems management through a multi-user version of the of the Library Solution software from our automation vendor, TLC, and in collaboration with other CMC Library Consortium members.
• special computer-assisted technologies to enhance library use for persons with Disabilities, such as Zoom Text, CCTV, Drag 'n Dictate, and TDS telephone service.
• support for a computer connected to the microfiche/reader printer dedicated to genealogical research.
• support for LCD projectors and laptops available for use at the libraries and by community agencies elsewhere in the community.
• support for a computerized white board in the community meeting room. 

As an extension of the Gates initiative, the library will continue within the four year time frame of this Technology Plan the following additional services:

• training in information literacy and other computer-based training for library staff and library users at an eleven-station Computer Training Labs located at the Saluda Branch library location and now at the new Main Library in Columbus.
• access for Hispanic and other non-native English-speaking library users to the multi-language profiles in their native language on all of the public access computer workstations at the two libraries.
• updating of pre-licensed educational and utility software provided through the Gates initiative at the two libraries.
• As more users access the Internet through library resources over the next four years, we will strive to increase bandwidth of our Internet connections at both library locations, in order to extend optimal Internet access.

Additional technology strategies pertaining specifically to the new main library building in Columbus and the Saluda Library include the following:

• implementation of videoconferencing (distance learning), AV projection and sound and video recording capability in the community meeting room.
• provision of Internet access ports for every electrical outlet in the building.
• provision of Wi-Fi hotspot capability for the building, enabling public Internet access throughout the building for owners of laptop computers.
• replacement of twelve Gates computer lab workstations intended for digital literacy training and public Internet access at the main library in Columbus.
• Replacement of fifteen Gates computer workstations (eleven in the computer lab) at the Saluda Library.
• replacement of four children's public Internet access workstations in the children's library of the new building in Columbus.
• implementation of an RFID system (Intelligent Library) for circulation, collection management, inventory control, and collection security.
• digitization and the creation of a website as a means of preserving Polk County important historical and archival documents.
• use of wireless technology and a new fiber optic cable connection provided by the PANGAEA Community Network for Internet access in the new building.

Staff Training

Over the next four years, the Polk County Public Library staff will take advantage of any information technology training opportunities offered by the State Library of North Carolina, SOLINET, the CMC Consortium, e-NC and e-Polk, other state and local government and nonprofit agencies, universities and colleges, and other library professional associations.
Our former trainer for information technology, Carolyn Michel, created the 21st Century Library curriculum, through which she began training library users in how to use the CMC Library Consortium's automated library system, the Library Solution from TLC. Since its creation, the curriculum has been expanded to include training on Internet basics, NC LIVE searching, and ELLIS software for tutors and students of English as a second language. Ms. Michel's 21st Century Library courses for library users will continue as part of the Continuing Education curriculum of the community college. Training she offers at the Gates Computer Lab will also be included in the Continuing Education curriculum of the community college.

Technology Assessment
Please see the attached Technology Assessment chart.

Budget

Eligible Expenses

The library intends to apply for E-rate discounts on during the next three years for telecommunication services, Internet access, and/or internal connections.

Ineligible Expenses

What other equipment, maintenance, services that are not e-rate eligible are required to implement this plan? The library must have sufficient budget to acquire and support the non-discounted portions of the e-rate requests for using telecommunications and information technology (the hardware, software, professional development, and other services that will be needed). For each, provide the following information:

Evaluation

The Polk County Public Library will include measurable goals and objectives relevant to the library's Technology Plan in our Long-Range Plan, which is evaluated on an annual basis. Through this review of our Long-Range Plan, we will evaluate how well we used technology to accomplish our service goals.

For a copy of the committee's e-community plan, click here.