Funding for the People's Network project

Funding for the People's Network project has been allocated and administered by the New Opportunities Fund (now the Big Lottery Fund) and forms part of a much bigger ICT funding backdrop designed to get the UK online.

The People's Network funding was one strand of the Community Access to Lifelong Learning Programme (CALL) totalling £230 million. This initiative aimed to encourage more adults into learning, with a particular focus on improving access to learning opportunities through the use of ICT. It placed a focus on socially excluded individuals and communities. The programme was divided three initiatives;

• The creation of a People's Network of ICT learning centres in public libraries
• Projects that support the development and operation of a network of ICT learning centres (CALL ICT centres), in a variety of locations, that are accessible to the public
• The development of Community Grids for Learning (essentially community-based websites) containing information on learning opportunities and learning materials.

The non-People's Network part of the programme was distributed as challenge funding, whereas the People's Network infrastructure funding (totalling £100 million of the £230 million programme) was allocated to all public libraries based on a specially developed allocation model, which is outlined below.

Infrastructure programme (CALL PN)

In essence £100 million was made available from The Fund for the implementation of the People's Network infrastructure, and an additional $4 million was donated by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to supplement infrastructure roll out in the most economically and socially deprived areas of the UK.

Lottery funding was distributed across the UK according to the Fund's policy percentage lines, as follows:

• £77.5m in England
• £11.5m in Scotland
• £6.5m in Wales
• £4.5m in Northern Ireland

Funding was allocated based on numbers of libraries and existing provision. The funding model rested on the premise that all library authorities must have a minimum baseline of connectivity, regardless of existing degrees of connectivity. MLA and The Fund worked out how much library authorities would receive by using a formula which would bring all libraries up to a minimum number of internet terminals - approximately 30 terminals for larger or central libraries and 6 terminals in smaller branch libraries.

A small amount of funding for England (approximately £3m) was set aside as a challenge fund, called the People's Network Excellence Fund. The aim of the Excellence Fund was to support the development of innovative public library networking projects. Between 10 and 20 innovative projects were supported. Further details about the People's Network Excellence Fund.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gift was allocated to libraries in the most deprived areas of the UK. Authorities were identified from the latest deprivation indices, such as the DETR's Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000 and European Objective 5b areas in England, and SIPS in Scotland. Each library recipient installed an additional 2-12 terminals (depending on size) to complement The Fund's infrastructure programme (CALL PN) to ensure that even higher levels of internet access are provided in these areas. Further information about the gift (Word 41KB) .

Training programme (ICTL)

There was £20 million to fund the ICT Training for Public Library Staff programme. To inform the disbursement of grants as part of this programme, The Fund undertook a training needs analysis of all public library staff during 1999. Subsequently, all authorities were made an allowance of £400 per capita, a further £45 per head was deployed as local circumstances dictated and a third sum from the Special Fund was administered at UK country level (regional level in England) which helped with particular strategic issues such as delivering training in rural areas. In addition, smaller authorities (those with less than 100 FE staff) automatically qualified for an additional £1000 supplementary fund.

nof-digitise programme

The £50-million nof-digitise programme comprised of a two-stage application process. Stage one resulted in some 340 applications totalling in excess of £140m and, following assessment by a panel of experts, some 200 institutions were subsequently invited to prepare full applications for Stage 2, of which 154 were awarded grants following further assessment. Grants ranged from £14,000 to £4m and were allocated to 37 consortia and 34 individual projects. Together they have produced a digital learning materials foundry of well over 1 million images, tens of thousands of audio and video clips, innumerable pages of text and many hundreds of new learning packages on a diverse range of topics.

Other funding streams

There are a number of other funding programmes to support the creation of ICT learning centres which public libraries qualify to apply for, such as the Capital Modernisation Fund. £252 million has been made available from the Capital Modernisation Fund to establish 700 ICT learning centres in England, in areas of social deprivation both rural and inner city. This fund is principally for capital and infrastructure costs and constitutes one component of the UK online initiative. Details can be found on the DfEE website for the programme.

The New Opportunities Fund CALL programme has provided revenue funding for such centres to cover costs such as marketing and promotion to identify and attract new users, training, learning support and guidance, supporting the use of the centre and evaluation work.