Resource and the Broadband Education Report

Citation

(2003), "Resource and the Broadband Education Report", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 37 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2003.28037dab.012

Resource and the Broadband Education Report

Resource and the Broadband Education Report

Resource has welcomed the Broadband Education Report from the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG), the UK government’s key advisory group on broadband. Resource has endorsed the report’s recommendation that government should commit to providing broadband access to all points of learning, including museums and archives, as well as libraries (www.broadbanduk.org).

The landmark education report provides a step-by-step guide to making the UK a leader in online learning and calls on the government to champion change. The report states the case for widespread use and exploitation of broadband within the education system, highlights the barriers to successful adoption, and proposes a five-step strategy to help bring about a new age of learning for UK education. The report complements the eEurope 2005 Action Plan e-learning objective that “all schools and universities have Internet access for educational and research purposes over a broadband connection. Museums, archives, libraries, and similar institutions that play a key role in e-learning should also be connected to broadband networks”.

David Dawson, Resource’s senior ICT adviser, said:

Resource welcomes this report and the emphasis it puts on the importance of museums, archives and libraries in delivering e-learning. The People’s Network, Resource’s project which has connected all public libraries to the Internet, installing 32,000 PCs and broadband connections throughout the public library network, is enabling people from every walk of life to have the opportunity to participate actively in the information society. The vital next step is to repeat the success by widening the People’s Network to include museums and archives.

There are now over 30,000 terminals installed in 4,000 UK public libraries, offering over 60 million hours of free Internet access a year, giving people of all ages, interests and backgrounds the opportunity to participate in the “wired” society as part of the People’s Network.

For further information please contact: Resource, 16 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1H 9AA, UK. Tel: +44(0) 20 7273 1450; Fax: +44(0) 20 7273 1404; E-mail: jo.odriscoll@resource.gov.uk; URL: www.resource.gov.uk