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Centralia Public Library Gets Funding for New Equipment

Torie Ross
/
KBIA

  The Centralia Public Library will be able to replace and upgrade library equipment. Secretary of State Jason Kander announced Monday the library received a federal technology grant of $17,347.

The federal funds will allow the library to upgrade and replace two barcode scanners, one receipt printer, four staff computers, three teen computers and eight public access computers. Becky Wilson, Director of the Centralia Public Library, said the grant will allow the library to entirely replace its aging network, which currently runs off of two servers from 2000 and 2003.

“We’re going to see a huge impact for the community because not only are we going to have better, more updated technology, but upgrading our server will fix many of the problems we’ve had with our internet usage and services,” Wilson said. “Right now our system lags and everything is not as fast as we wish it would be so hopefully this will help everything run much smoother.”

The grant is funded by the Library Services and Technology Act, a federal program administered by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library services. Missouri received $2.9 this year from the program, and State Librarian Baraba Reading said more than $137,000 was awarded to 14 Missouri libraries during the most recent round of grants.

“The money is used for grants like this that go directly to individual libraries, but it’s also used for training for library staff and for other programs that help libraries statewide.”

Reading said the grant is necessary to upgrade the Centralia Public Library servers.

“We had been particularly encouraging libraries, such as Centralia, that still had computers with Windows XP to apply for funds to upgrade because that software was no longer being supported,” Reading said. “If they had any kind of difficulties, they would not be able to get any assistance from Microsoft who was not maintaining that any longer.”

Wilson said six of the fifteen computers being replaced will be repurposed for other parts of the library to increase accessibility.

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