Opportunity Online Grants Will Help Public Libraries Improve Quality of Free Computer Access Used by Millions of Americans

SEATTLE, July 16, 2009 — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today $6.5 million in grants to help public libraries in 11 states increase and sustain free, quality public access to computers for their patrons. These Opportunity Online hardware grants will help libraries upgrade and add public computer workstations for patrons in communities with high concentrations of poverty and where a library’s public computers are at risk of becoming outdated with limited capacity for users.