Library in Line for Online Access

By HILARY E. MacGREGOR

Dec. 12, 1997 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

VENTURA — If all goes well, Ventura’s E.P. Foster Library downtown could have 11 new computers complete with Internet access by the first of the year.

A group of library boosters spent the past year collecting donations for the computers--worth $15,000.

The Benjamin Franklin Project--so named because the colonial statesman was a leading advocate of public libraries--first tried to make its donation several months ago.

But those efforts stalled when the county’s interim library director put the project on hold--saying the library was restructuring and it was unclear where the computers would go.

But with reorganization of the library underway, the library advisory committee Wednesday night approved the Franklin project.

The project will go before the City Council on Monday night for final approval.

Mayor Jim Friedman praised the project.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Friedman said. “This city has been behind from a technological standpoint. This recommendation, which I think is terrific, will finally connect Ventura with the information superhighway.”

Library boosters were also delighted.

“I think the word is thrilling,” said Dave Bianco, who headed the Franklin project and sits on the advisory panel. “We worked collaboratively with the county and came up with a configuration that will work.”

The computers will be placed behind the library reference desk, where older models used for electronic searches now sit. Volunteers will teach the computer-challenged how to use the technology.

Bianco praised the project as a success because of the way the city, the county library agency, Avenue Cable in Ventura and the Friends of the Library worked together to move the city forward.

“Ventura will be a leader now,” Bianco said.

“It will have in its library a great bank of computers that puts it above anyone else in the county. Ventura is well on it’s way to becoming a smart city,” he said. “That’s what they call it in techno-babble.”

Also, the Franklin project owns several older computers that could be installed in the city’s branch libraries in the future, Bianco said.