Susan McVey, Director at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries told me once, that my donor computers where like puppies. They all found homes quickly. By the end of the grant thanks to our donor to the project almost 50 desktops computers will have been placed. I could make a list of all the places but when I think of the places, I see faces. I see the faces that helped carry equipment in, install Wi-Fi cards, attach cables, keyboards, monitors and mouse. Faces that light up when everything works, and we just look at the computers sitting there – usually on a folding table with mix matched chairs. The final part is always me taking a picture that doesn’t turn out very good or them taking pictures for the Tribal newsletter. It doesn’t matter that our project is a grant that has an ending date. These people will continue to be able to call me and the Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Oklahoma Department of Libraries recognizes all Tribal Libraries as special libraries.
As a Tribal Librarian, I too have had my share of “Out of Order” signs. This sign pictured on a computer at an Oklahoma Tribal Library is now gone replaced by two of our donor computers and will soon have another new computer from a grant, which will give them a total of three public computers.