 Obviously, it's really important that we have fast or reliable internet. It's a vital, vital part of our lives. It's important that we have it everywhere, everywhere in our state, not just downtown big cities. Hi, I'm Holly Wolt. I'm on the staff of the Nebraska Library Commission. I've been working with the Commission for about 13 years. I travel to 113 libraries over three years. Having the opportunity to go into the library, offer them new technology, set up new computers, but more importantly, to observe what happens in our rural libraries in Nebraska. I'm going to stitch together a series of videos of real people and real places where real progress has happened. The real progress refers to the installation of fiber to Nebraska public libraries. These video clips highlight the impact of digital broadband, or as we say at the Library Commission, fiber at Nebraska public libraries. We have an opportunity to hear from library directors, village board members, kids that love the digital broadband speeds available at the library, community business leaders, or rural entrepreneurs who found refuge for high-speed digital broadband at their local library and locally elected former and current officials. So let's get the show started. Welcome to Fairmont. I'm Wanda Margit, the director. I've been the director for 32 years. We've had two other directors before me, which started in 1922. The library was in many places around town, wherever they had a free space to use. And in 1963, the village fathers decided they'd build it with a fire station over here. So we've been here quite a while. So please come on in. I'll show you around. I use the internet here in the library to help me with my homework. If I can't get help with my homework, I might get in a lot of trouble. So I kind of need a computer. And now to our biggest improvement is our broadband fiber from Network Nebraska. It increased our speed from 32 megabytes to 200 megabytes. It's benefited the library because we have more people coming in to use it. And they always say, well, this is fast, you know. If they would need to download something or whatever, they come here and do it. They can come in and get our password and utilize their own laptop, their phone, anything. And a lot of people just stop by the outside. You see cars parked on the street. Well, even when I'm not open using the internet, which is great. And the village fathers board has even approved open hours more. So now I'm open 34 hours instead of 23. My wife works for Austin as her office manager. And she always come home and say how bad the internet was. I mean, she, I mean, that was a cost to complain. You know, she couldn't do her job because of the internet was always down. The internet is much faster here than it is at home. We want to keep up with the times. We want to keep the technology up to date so that we're helping the kids that are trying to keep up in school. The businesses that are, are struggling. We want to keep the library a vital part of the community. I love the library. I love the computers. I love the books. I love the legos they have. Yeah, the library is just great. The Fairmont Public Library connected to fiber in July of 2022. Currently, there is no fiber connectivity in the Fairmont's residential area. Did you know that nearly 33% of Nebraska households are identified as internet insecure or under connected? These households are vulnerable to not being able to fully participate in the digital economy and digital skills training. Libraries are often the only location in rural communities that offer free wifi. Libraries connected to fiber offer fast and reliable digital broadband access for digital skill training and a portal to the digital economy. We had to use all the different types that were provided and we went through several of them. They were inconsistent. We tried to have 100 speed and we get like 32 and when school got out everybody else was using it and it even would drop lower. So we needed to do something else and at times we would even not have internet for hours or two weeks at a time. Yeah, if you have any questions and Nebraska Library Commission is there to help, you call them. There's 800 number. They're online so you can get anybody you want. They'll guide you to the person that is helpful. Fairmont Libraries Board and Fairmont Village Board sat down and talked about why it was important for their rural community library to be connected to fiber. One to always try to keep up with everything that was going on out in the world and make sure that the library had the knowledge and the expertise to help the community and help the kids and whoever used the library. The library is able to bring that fiber into town. It can help more than just the library. It's a huge benefit and plus for other businesses, other facilities and villages and towns and themselves if they're able to get it. This year's 2023 Nebraska Legislature created the new Nebraska State Broadband Office with the passage of LB 683 signed by Governor Pellin. The office will be housed within the Nebraska Department of Transportation and work under the oversight of the Nebraska Department of Transportation and the governor's office. The broadband office is being formed to create a more transparent, flexible and proactive response for Nebraska's broadband needs. The new office will work openly and collaboratively with relevant government agencies and other stakeholders to ensure that the broadband deployment is strategic, cost-effective and that recipients of funding are accountable for their use of public funds. The Nebraska Public Service Commission provides the funding for the E-Rate Special Construction Matching Funds Grant. This grant provides libraries that participate in E-Rate Special Construction the opportunity to receive matching funds from the state of Nebraska for fiber installation costs. With the new Nebraska State Broadband Office, the Nebraska Public Service Commission will continue to offer the matching grant fund through the Nebraska Universal Services Funds. Both agencies will work together to maximize funding opportunities to bring fiber to Nebraska Public Libraries. Colin Robbins, the director of the Nebraska Universal Service Fund and telecommunications at the Nebraska Public Service Commission will explain more. The Public Service Commission has set up an application process that is fairly short once a library has gone through the federal application process. Our program is a complement to the federal program so it just consists of filling out an application. You basically have to verify that you participated in the federal part of the process and then our state processes. I consider it much shorter and much more simple. The commission started the Nebraska Universal Service Fund after legislation that gave the commission that authority in the late 90s. The purpose of the fund is really to accomplish a number of different goals. One is to make sure that there's broadband service to rural areas at affordable prices. The commission has several programs including Bede that we administer that are working to get broadband to our rural areas of the state to our unserved and underserved locations in the state. And really just making sure that there's broadband everywhere in Nebraska. First one would be our state broadband map. If you go to broadbandmap.nebraska.gov, you can go on there, put in an address. It'll bring up the list of providers for your area. You could easily identify whether any of those are providing fiber optic services. Second way would be to use the FCC's broadband map, which is broadbandmap.fcc.gov. There's a similar tool on that map where you type in an address that'll pull up the point where the address is located and a list of providers. And then the third way would just be to call our office. We have resources to help you find out rather quickly what providers have service in your area. Getting fiber to the library can really help also educate some of the residents on how to use it. That's an important part of what the Infrastructure and Jobs Act and Internet for All is really about is not just getting fiber to locations, but also programs that enable people to learn how to use the technology. That's another really good benefit of just getting something to a library, something that people can access and gain some knowledge on how to use. I'm Becca Kingery. I am the Education IT Manager for the Office of the Chief Information Officer in the Nebraska Information Technology Commission. As part of that job, I also will provide administrative oversight for Network Nebraska. Network Nebraska is the research and education network for the state of Nebraska, and we provide services to our K-12 schools. As of today, we provide services to approximately 99% of those K-12 public schools, 100% of the public universities, 100% of the state colleges, as well as the community colleges. By statute, we are also able to provide services to the public libraries throughout the state of Nebraska. As of right now, we only represent a small percentage of the public libraries throughout the state. That is an area of growth for us in the future. Why does this all matter? It's my absolute favorite question. Right now in the state of Nebraska, we have a unique opportunity to provide these services by utilizing special construction and bringing fiber into communities that have not yet had it to this day. And we can use that in conjunction because we are right now on the cusp of millions of dollars coming into the state from the NTIA, and that can be combined with special construction. So you can bring, you have an opportunity to bring fiber into your community for the first time and then the potential for those NTIA grants to deploy fiber to your communities. And thus, we can make that money spread a little bit farther by combining these multiple programs. Hello, I am Krista Porter, the Library Development Director at the Nebraska Library Commission. I have also served as a state e-rate coordinator for public libraries in Nebraska. What is e-rate? E-rate is the FCC program that provides discounts to schools and libraries on their monthly internet costs and internal connection costs. This would be things such as wiring, routers, switches, and other network equipment. The program ensures that schools and libraries can receive high speed internet at affordable rates so that students and library patrons can stay connected. All legally established public libraries in Nebraska are eligible to apply for e-rate, and most Nebraska libraries who apply receive somewhere between a 60 and 80% discount on their internet and network equipment costs. So what can libraries do to meet the internet needs of their patrons? Well, the Special Construction State Matching Funds program that is being offered through the Public Service Commission can be the answer. It offers an additional discount on top of a library's regular e-rate discount, which the e-rate program then also matches. So for libraries at an 80% or above base e-rate discount rate, the cost to the library is zero. E-rate in the State Matching Funds covers the entire cost of the construction of running the fiber to the library. We here at the Nebraska Library Commission are able to support our libraries with training, consulting, guiding you through all the forms and applications you may need to submit to implement the e-rate Special Construction program. Now is the time for public libraries in Nebraska to take advantage of this additional funding while it's available and bring that fiber connection to their buildings and their community. I just wanted to share a little bit about how the high speed internet at our local library in Bancroft has been such a blessing. So I am like a family senior newborn photographer and all of my clients get their images digitally. So I upload them all when our session is done and they're edited and send them off by email. And I had a lot of sessions that I needed to get uploaded quickly and send off to my clients. And I thought, you know, I'm going to go to our local library and see if their internet there is quicker. And if I can get this done a lot faster, I was kind of desperate with a lot of work to do and not a lot of time. And so I went to the library one evening and talked to Lisa there and sat down, got on my computer and I started uploading. I remember uploading like a hundred images from the session in like a minute and a half. And I was absolutely floored by how quick the internet was in town. It is so so much faster than what we have out here in the country. And so I just think that all rural communities, I hope all rural communities have access to that quick of internet because it has been in my busy seasons just a huge blessing. And it has allowed me to get things done that I would never be able to get done that fast at home. The benefit that's going to be tremendous for the library and the community if they want to get hooked up to it. Have you heard of Network Nebraska? Network Nebraska is a collaborative statewide networking effort to share telecommunication resources, network services and applications among eligible participants, which includes Nebraska Public Libraries. The Nebraska Public Service Commission provides a money matching program using Nebraska Universal Service Funds to assist libraries to pay for connecting fiber. Don't let the application and paper process stop you from applying. Today our community libraries are so much more than just places to check out a book. They're our community centers.