Joeten-Kiyu application for E-Rate subsidies OK’d

Library patrons on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota will soon have access to higher speed Internet services after the Joeten-Kiyu Public Library recently got approval for a grant application for E-Rate telecommunications subsidies.

JKPL executive director John Oliver Gonzales said Thursday that CNMI’s state public library has been awarded its request of $36,247.93 at 90-percent level for program year July 2011 to June 2012 by the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund or USF.

Administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company, USF helps provide communities across the country with affordable telecommunications services through its programs for high cost companies serving rural areas, low-income consumers, rural health care providers, and schools and libraries.

USAC is an independent, not-for-profit corporation designated as the administrator of the federal USF by the Federal Communications Commission.

The approved request, Gonzales said, means JKPL would only need to pay for the remaining 10 percent of the program year.

“We are awaiting official notification from USAC through receipt of the Funding Commitment Decision Letter, which was effectively issued on Jan. 4, 2012 according to the online application status display,” Gonzales told Saipan Tribune.

Once they receive the notification, Gonzales said they will schedule their information technology staff to visit and install Internet services at Tinian and Rota’s public libraries, including their facility on Saipan and the Bookmobile service for off-site patrons as well.

Gonzales said they will coordinate with the mayors of Rota and Tinian for the public libraries in their respective municipalities.

He disclosed that JKPL used to avail of the E-Rate grant program until 2006 when the former management was not able to renew the grant’s annual online application.

When he came on board in 2009, Gonzales pledged to restore the grant, consulting and collaborating with E-Rate pioneers who are former Public School System staff like Louise Sablan Concepcion, Nick Sablan, Norman Okamura, and Joe W. Torres.

The executive director noted that restoring E-Rate subsidies is “timely and welcome” to “augment the dwindling local resources we face.”

“E-Rate subsidies will go a long way in our continuing quality improvement efforts to upgrade our level of public library services toward efficiency and optimum quality,” he said.

Gonzales added that he will “proactively” pursue outside funding sources and “meaningful collaboration” with community partners “to continually brand and upgrade” services for all library patrons on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.