The Lenox Public Library, home to two new computers, thanks to MIRA

The Lenox team used the MIRA grant to increase the community's technological knowledge and access by adding two new computers to the public library and began offering classes at the public school. In order to promote community resources, the team created a community webpage and a printed brochure.

The internet classes focused on beginning to intermediate skill levels in navigating the internet, using email, and searching techniques. The classes were 12 hours each and had 10-11 people in attendance. Nearly all the students had recently or were going to buy a computer for home use and wanted to increase their skills with this technology.

The community of Lenox (taken from the Lenox homepage)

The increase in technological resources in the library has been very successful, with the traffic at the computer/internet stations numbering into the hundreds. The library's hours have been extended to eight hours a day, significant hours for a town of only 1,300, to accommodate the increase in traffic. Also, thanks to the resources and education, senior citizens have become more active internet users and now have someone to manage their webpages for them. The computers at the library also helped people become more comfortable with computer technology and they began thinking about buying a computer for home use.

Students in the community can now bring a disk from school and access the internet or simply use word processing at the public library. This has not been possible before as the library only had IBM computers and they were not accessible to the public.

The MIRA grant helped the local economy, in that many people bought computers as they became more proficient at using email and internet.

As an unexpected bonus, the MIRA process helped to develop a nucleus of volunteers that includes many new potential leaders.