Proposal Statement & Facts:
Stephen J. Betze Library of Delaware Technical & Community College-Owens Campus, the largest library in the Sussex County, holds a unique responsibility in Southern Delaware. This responsibility stems from the fact that Owens Campus of DTCC is also the site of Carter Partnership Center (Higher Education Building), and as such, the library is in charge of providing electronic access to a large and diverse undergraduate and graduate student population enrolled in partner institutions: University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Wilmington College, and Delaware Tech/UD Parallel Program (In 1998-99, 16,422 students enrolled in Delaware Tech-Owens Campus and Parallel program of Delaware Tech/University of Delaware).

Due to the services, resources, and electronic databases available in the library, the Betze Library has also assumed the responsibility of providing access to information technology to the community members by serving the Sussex County community patrons at no charge. In addition to Delaware Tech students, the library extends membership by honoring cards of partner institutions (DSU, UD, Wilmington College) and membership cards of area public libraries (13 in Sussex County alone) and High Schools (grades 9-12). In the past four years, the library has registered over 12,000 community patrons. The Stephen J. Betze Library, funded by a grant from the Delaware Division of Libraries, has established a countywide telephone reference service-Answer Line to provide the electronic data and other ready reference sources of information to community patrons.

While the college and the library, through the professional services of the Betze Library staff, is committed to serving the people of Southern Delaware, the existing computer infrastructure is outdated and inefficient, and as such, incapable of providing access to the expensive and unique online databases subscribed by the library.

The college, in response to the requirements of its own curricula, as well as the programs of its partner institutions, has continuously invested to subscribe to new databases and upgrade the library computers. The existing computer stations, however, incongruously lag behind the volume of demand for access to Internet and online electronic databases. Currently, networked access to the Internet and online databases, are provided via 21 PCs. These computers, equipped with Pentium TM 75 MHZ/16 MB RAM/300 bps standard Modems/and no CD-ROM drive, obviously lack the demanding capacity to provide access to the rich volume of online database resources in the library. The patrons' suggestion box in the library, while commending the staff assistance, highlights their extreme frustration with the library's underdeveloped computers, and therefore with the slow access to the Internet, and online sources.

Proposal:
The existing quality of the library computers hinders the much-needed access of the Sussex County community at large to our online databases. We assert that the Delaware Tech's Betze library policy of providing indiscriminate and free access to the subscribed online information databases could be a model example of community partnership in the region. We also know that Betze library is the only information center in the county that has invested in subscribing to academic and popularly demanded online full-text databases-such as Lexis-Nexis- which are otherwise unavailable in county. The college and library with the aim of promoting community partnership, makes every effort to fill the digital divide gap in the private and public sectors of the Sussex County.

Based on the aforementioned facts, we propose to be granted funds to obtain up to 40 advanced PC stations and 8 laser printers in the Betze library. We also emphasize that the college computer staff and the Betze library staff possess the knowledge, technical skills, and training to install, maintain, and provide networked access to more advanced computers.