Modern libraries, bustling with activity, are the aim of the Polish government’s “Library+” program and the library scheme of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with its partner – the Polish-American Freedom Foundation.

The government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the co-founder of Microsoft have joined hands to transform libraries in rural communities and small towns from often deserted book lending facilities into modern centers of IT and culture. The program gets off the ground on January 1, 2009. During the next three to five years 200 million zlotys, or around 66 million US dollars, will be earmarked for this purpose, with the Gates Foundation accounting for slightly less than a half of that sum. Polish minister of culture Bogdan Zdrojewski points out that the funding is badly needed, as about 2,500 out of over 8 thousand libraries serving local communities in Poland have no access to the web.

‘The money will be spent on computers and internet service. There are libraries, which need to be adapted for the elderly and the handicapped. They are situated in buildings with difficult access, have no toilets, lifts and so on.’

Only 15 percent of libraries in Poland can perform all the functions expected of them. About 30 percent need some financial boost, but almost a half call for major outlays. The library grants program of the Gates Foundation is implemented in Poland by the Information Society Development Foundation. Its president, Jacek Wojnarowski, says libraries in small towns and villages are an undiscovered asset with a big potential to boost the social development of rural communities.

It is expected to take some five years to completely revamp the ailing libraries and transform them into bustling centers of activity. But already next year, all of them should have a computer and access to the internet, Wojnarowski.

The government and the Gates Foundation will cover 80 percent of the cost of modernizing libraries in Poland. The remaining 20 percent will come from local governments. The minister of culture says that the program has generated great interest, especially in low income communities, which truly need an injection of cash to modernize their libraries.

Click on the audio icon to listen to the entire report by Krysia Kołosowska.