The City of Johannesburg Library and Information Services plans to provide public Internet services, starting next year.
The plan is part of the city`s integrated development plan, with funding sourced from the City of Johannesburg, says Attila Lourens, deputy director of Library and Information Services.
Lourens was unable to provide details regarding the amount of funding that would be required to complete the project. "We have appointed a project manager, who is working to determine the unit cost of the workstations, as well as the complete budget," she says.
Roll-out will begin in underserviced areas such as Soweto and Lenasia, as well as large city libraries that are accessible to a large number of users, she says. The second tier roll-out will be to smaller suburban libraries, Lourens says.
Large libraries will have a minimum of five workstations, with the number at smaller libraries depending on space availability, she adds.
In addition to wireless Internet access and e-mail facilities, specialised software providing career guidance and life skills information will be included on the workstations, Lourens says.
"We would like to lead our young people to get career guidance that is relevant for the South African environment rather than leaving them to learn only what is available on the Internet," she notes.
The complete roll-out of Internet services will take three years, finishing in time for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
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