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Have you heard of the Library Edge project? If you're a regular visitor to our site, you have seen resources and stories we're shared in support of the project over the last year. You may also have attended one of our Library Edge Benchmark webinars. The Edge Benchmarks are the driving force behind the Edge Initiative. The benchmarks can help library staff understand best practices in  public access technology services for their communities and determine what steps they need to take to improve their public technology. 

My friend and colleague Susan McVey, State Librarian of Oklahoma, encouraged me to share a post from Anne Masters, Director of the Pioneer Library System, which is near areas affected by the recent and tragic tornado. Find out how you can help.

Silver Lake, Kansas is a town with a population of 1,439 people (according to the 2010 Census). Thanks to the local library, there’s a whole lot of building going on in the community… and I’m not just talking about renovations and an expansion at the library. Youth in the community have been visiting the library to play Minecraft, a game that allows them to build almost anything they can imagine.

You may have heard of speed dating parties. They are popular matchmaking events during which single people have an opportunity to have quick conversations with lots of other single people. If someone meets a person they would like to get to know better during the event, they can arrange another date. Some innovative minds in the New Jersey library world have borrowed from this approach to create Technology Speed Dating, a training format that helped NJ librarians quickly get introduced to lots of new technologies.

TechSoup and GrantStation are pleased to present a special offer for eligible U.S. public libraries, nonprofits, and charities to help you win more grant awards with access to an online grant database, targeted grant research, and insider strategies. Connect to thousands of federal and state grants and other funding opportunities with a specially discounted membership to GrantStation.

Thank you to Alexis Caudell, Director of the Mitchell Community Library (IN) for sharing her planning experiences and expertise during today's "Planning: A Small Library's Strategies for Tech Success" webinar! If you missed the webinar, but are interested in a thoughtful approach to technology planning, you'll definitely want to check out the recording and the resources.

In a previous article, I shared resources to help you find data to be used for community assessment as part of technology planning. After your community assessment activities have helped you identify the needs in your service area, and you have used tools and resources to plan technology-related services to meet those needs, it’s time to look at your library’s policies.

From 2011-2012 I worked at the Colorado State Library as part of a team to help 50 libraries across the state to develop new and improved technology training programs. 

In addition to our expert judges selecting top stories for our Digital Storytelling Challenge, we are awarding a community choice prize as voted on by YOU! 

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) created the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP ) to increase broadband access and adoption in the US. State and public libraries have been critical partners in many of these projects. This May 2013 report from American Library Association (ALA) looks at library projects around the country, exploring the impact on communities.