oxford county library - a rural vcc libtech international march 29, 1999 sam coghlan chief librarian
TRANSCRIPT
Oxford County Library- a rural VCC
Libtech InternationalMarch 29, 1999
Sam CoghlanChief Librarian
County of Oxford
Population equal to Chester (90,000)
in an area the size of Warwickshire(200,000 hectares)
“Dairy Capital of Canada”
Agriculture & Automotive
1 city, 2 towns, 5 rural townships
Oxford County Library
17 branchesEach a community library
Quality library service for the individual spirit, community
support and access to information
Why VCC?
• Solve problems of distance
• Rural attitude of innovation
• Community Coordinated Library Service
• Position library as community information resource & IT leader
• Library sustainability through partnerships
VCC: Connecting
1995: 15 libraries CAP site
1995: Information Access Oxford (IAO) as
employment resource
1998: Network 2000 Server
1998: C.O.I.N. created
1999: 10Mbps access to the Internet
and to the community
C.O.I.N.County of Oxford Integrated Network
• 20 Libraries, 8 Town Halls, a Museum, an Art Gallery, a Landfill, a Pollution Plant, a Swimming Pool, a College, 3 Schools,....
.......Already connected
• And looking for more.....
We WILL have the whole county connected!
C.O.I.N. The technology
• Spread spectrum wireless– (2 - 11 Mbps up to 25 km.)
• Fibre optic– (where affordable)
• ADSL– (1.5 Mbps, maximum 5 km. of copper wire)
VCC: Organizing
• Partnerships
Libraries KNOW partnerships - ILLO
Rural libraries have to partner - $$$$
County library is “partnership personified”
Some of our partners:
• Federal government– Connecting Canadians
– Community Access Program (CAP)
– Citizen-Centred Service• “horizontal integration”
– Community Capacity Building
Some of our partners:
• Ontario government– Network 2000
– Telecommunications Access Partnership
– Virtual Libraries
– working with Federal government
• Local governments
Some of our partners:
• Community College– Distance Education over Internet
• Secondary Schools– work term credits (similar to interns)
• YouthStart– the Canadian version
LibrarySecret Weapon of Western Society
• Library generates innovation:
Public Library as Peoples’ College
“80% of learning is self-directed”Prof. Allen Tough, OISE
LibrarySecret Weapon of Western Society
• Library is no stranger to IT:
– Connecting = free public libraries
– Organizing = card catalogue
– Presenting = story hour
– Accessing = accessible to all
LibrarySecret Weapon of Oxford County
• Library is leading Oxford County:
– Community access to the Internet
– Testing wireless & DSL rurally
– Proving strength of partnerships
– Putting the community first
Oxford County LibrarySecret Weapon of Oxford County
Oxford County Library
is
C.O.I.N. operated,
but....
Oxford County LibrarySecret Weapon of Oxford County
It is a C.O.I.N. that
we minted
