Best Junction For Online Kids

Wired for Youth Centers

"My job?" says Michele Gorman, Wired for Youth librarian at Carver Branch. "It's part teaching; it's part social work ... it's crazy, and then we manage to insert computer instruction in there, too!" Seven of our local library branches now house WFY centers, each staffed with its own technical information librarian, to provide scheduled events and workshops from word processing for school reports to HTML 101 and Web design. Each center has a number of workstations decked out with hopped-up Dell PCs. This grant-funded (Susan & Michael Dell Foundation) kids' program attempts to address the digital divide, not only along economic lines but along age divisions as well. "Most of our program libraries are close to schools. And most existing library programs are for younger kids. We're providing a place within the library system for kids 8-18. We fill a gap," Gorman adds enthusiastically.