"We're very pleased we'll be working with Stanly County, our most rural neighbor, in the Rural Access part of our project. The Director and the staff at the Stanly County Library will be great participants. They are very enthusiastic about the project and see its potential for their community. Stanly County has recently received lengthy news coverage in both the Charlotte Observer and the Wall Street Journal because of their problems. Over the last five years, the county has suffered a net loss of more than 2,000 jobs (mostly textiles) making it one of the hardest hit counties in the Southeast. The per capita income is 23 percent below the average for our area. Not only will Libraries Online! give them access to great area resources (including our 'Gobs of Jobs' pages), we'll also be training their volunteers to create Web pages with information about their own county."

Pat Ryckman, Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.

Mr. Gates exploring the Internet with a new friend from Charlotte.

An environmental hearing was held in Norwood (southern Stanly County) two weeks ago and an environmental lawyer from Florida and a member of the national Sierra Club board were here to assist local citizens with part of their presentation. These folks from out of county used the Internet computers and showed the local representative how to do environmental research. The out of state people were impressed that we had the public access in our rural area.


Penny Welling, Director, Stanly County Public Library, 5/96

Here we go! Libraries Online! Gateway PC and Windows 95, but most of all browsing the world for information!

Credits: Library Staff, Charlotte Public Library, submitted 4/96 and 5/96.