What was Project GAIN and who was involved?
Project GAIN was a unique landmark study that I cobbled together using several grants in 1993-1994. It extended Internet connectivity to five rural New York State public libraries, and one Indian Nation school.
In 1992, while I was still working at Liverpool Public Library, I received a grant from the JM Kaplan Foundation to study the possible (!) utility of the Internet to public libraries. Within months I was working at NYSERNet (NY State Education and Research Network), a midlevel regional network of the NSFNet, and took my grant along with me. Then the Apple Computer corporate library contributed equipment, NYSERNet contributed connectivity and my time, and we began the study.
Project GAIN Revisited: Connecting Rural Public Libraries to the Internet
Jean Armour Polly polly@well.com
http://www.well.com/user/polly
May, 1996
Introduction
Prior to the early 1990's, it was commonly recognized that the Internet was difficult to use. First, there was the problem of connecting to it. How do you find it? Where is the "Information superhighway," anyway? One could not just open a telephone book and look under "INTERNET" to find an Internet service provider!