Internet Centers in the Crimea

The Gasprinsky Republican Crimean Tatar Library and Franko Republican Universal Scholarly Library have opened free Internet centers for their readers with a grant from the US Embassy in Ukraine. “This is an invaluable gift and contribution to the development of our library system,” Olena Emirova, chief library specialist with the Ministry of Culture of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, told a press conference. The Gasprinsky Library obtained $24,000 and Franko Library $22,000. The libraries got five computers with software each and paid up access to the Internet for two years.

In the end of 2001 the Gasprinsky and Franko libraries became winners of the Internet for Public Libraries’ Readers Open Contest conducted by the Press, Education, and Cultural Department of the US Embassy in Ukraine. The project is intended to assist Ukrainian public libraries in providing people with information services and supporting free and open information exchange, which is necessary for Ukraine’s integration into the international community and conducting reforms. The project foresees financing Internet centers at Ukrainian public libraries. The contest’s budget is $700,000. Over 130 projects applied for the contest, from which the American Embassy chose 34.

The Internet center’s main goal is to provide library users with access to the Internet and help them familiarize themselves with the World Wide Web. Gasprinsky Library bibliographers, with their profound experience of working with the Internet, will compose white lists of Internet sites for children, young people, students, and other social groups. Thus, the library assumes an additional role of navigator in the Web’s information resources. In addition, Gasprinsky Library specialists involved in the project have worked out a collective training program for Internet readers and users. Four times a month special training sessions will be conducted for various categories of readers (students, schoolchildren, teachers as well as representatives of public organizations and national communities) dedicated to various topics, including common principles of working with the Internet, searching for information on certain subjects, etc. All the services at the Gasprinsky Library Internet Center are free of charge. Each center will serve about 700 clients a month.