The grant that keeps rural Alaska's libraries online is open again

In much of Alaska, the public library is where you get online — to renew a license, see a doctor by video, file for the PFD, take a class, or apply for a job. Keeping those libraries connected is the whole point of the state's Online With Libraries program, and one of its steadiest pieces just reopened for the coming year.

The Alaska State Library has reopened its OWL Internet Cost Assistance grant, which helps public libraries cover the cost of their internet service. Any Alaska public library that qualifies can apply — and, unlike most grants, they aren't competing against one another for a limited pool. Every eligible library that applies can be funded, whether or not it takes part in the federal E-Rate program. The deadline is August 31, for the budget year running through June 2027.

The open-door design is deliberate. OWL grew out of an effort, beginning in 2011, to give rural Alaskans the high-speed access urban residents had long taken for granted — broadband, public computers, videoconferencing, and training, delivered through the one building most communities already have. Where a home connection is slow, costly, or simply not there, the library's bandwidth becomes a kind of public utility. The cost-assistance grant is how the state helps keep the meter running.

Libraries with questions can join one of three online sessions the state library is hosting in July, and the application is posted on the OWL funding page.