[OPLINTECH] Gates grant application - what to expect? & integrating Gates with other public computers?

[Phil Shirley]

Could you share your experiences and/or point me to any sources of info 
you know of regarding my questions below?  Thanks.

I have no experience with getting Gates grant computers.  We were 
contacted recently and told we met the "first level of eligibility
for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Opportunity Online Hardware
Grant program."  I have submitted an inventory of our public access 
computers as required for the next step, but I have no way to know what 
might result, and I'd really, really like to know for planning purposes. 
  Can anyone give me any idea?

Factors that could affect what we get: We have 52 public access 
computers, and all but 5 are at least 4 years old (but we're going to do 
something about that soon).  We have a levy so we're not desperately 
poor (but of course we would welcome free or discounted equipment).

Does anyone have any idea what I might expect, or could you share your 
experiences?

I don't know what's possible in terms of how many machines they might 
offer us or what if any cost they would be.  Maybe they'll give us 52 
free computers?  Maybe they'll say we can get 5 computers at 25% off 
retail price?  Maybe it won't be worth the trouble?

I'm also wondering about how these will integrate with our other public 
computers.  I've seen some old Gates computers at another library and I 
have some idea what to expect: I think that these come ready-to-go, just 
set the network settings if necessary and plug 'em in, with lots of MS 
software and their own "server" to manage them - so, I suppose you could 
put them out like this and not include them in your Windows domain, your 
print management / waiting list software, etc.  I also believe that 
maybe you can erase the hard drives and use the hardware in any way you 
want as log as it's as a public access computer, although it seems like 
it would be nice to have the pre-installed software (I don't know if you 
get the install disks for it or not?).

Finally, I have no idea how long the process takes or how long it takes 
to get the machines - whether we might have them in 3 months or a year - 
and of course this is probably something that nobody can really predict.

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Phil
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Phil Shirley
Technology Services Coordinator
Cuyahoga Falls Library
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
330-928-2117, ext. 109
pshirley at CuyahogaFallsLibrary dot org

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