Are Libraries Good Beachheads for Gigabit Cities? Of Course.

Casting around for effective strategies to help meet (or exceed) the FCC’s Gigabit City Challenge, we wonder: how do we focus the myriad of broadband projects and stakeholders into one unified charge for better networks that produce great results? Libraries may be the answer.

Springing from Kansas City’s Google Fiber project, the K-20 Librarians Initiative hopes to make libraries the hub of broadband buildout and adoption efforts. The Initiative bridges K-12 school, college, and university libraries with public libraries to extend the reach of network infrastructure, applications and resources. Don Means, co-founder and principal of Digital Village Associates explains the game plan. He’s a major force in the Initiative.

As hundreds of middle-mile broadband networks come online that have wired libraries and other institutions, how do we leverage these buildouts to cover surrounding communities? Can libraries become mini test beds for applications people try before they buy? Will fiber to the library mean super fast wireless to the home? Means addresses these and other important questions.