POTTSTOWN PA – He’s a reader, he’s a library director, he’s a video star, and in his latest incarnation Michael Packard is also a bit of a pitchman.
Pottstown Regional Public Library, 500 High St., Pottstown PA, has written an application – and as part of it, produced a video – to obtain empowerment grant money being distributed by the non-profit Motorola Mobility Foundation. Packard hopes foundation cash will help the library buy electronic tablets such as the Motorola Xoom (a competitor to the iPad and similar devices) that library visitors can use within its building. The video was posted last Thursday (July 7, 2011) on YouTube.
- Watch the video, above, or see it at the YouTube user account of mkplibrary.
He calls it a “mobile patron plan.” The concept, Packard said, allows users to check out a tablet device from a front desk. The user could then find a seat in the library, and use the tablet to read periodicals, access databases, check out e-books, or surf the web within the library’s WiFi (wireless internet) zones. The tablet is then returned to the front desk. The institution is looking to “make the leap” to table technology, he explains in the video.
The foundation “focuses its funding on education, community, health and wellness, and disaster response,” according to its website. Packard’s video does not mention the amount of money being sought.
Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township annually supports library operations on behalf of its residents with a financial contribution. During 2011 it amounts to $60,000.
Photo from Google Images
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[...] As Pottstown’s Librarian, He’s Also Its Chief Pitchman Pottstown Regional Public Library Director Mike Packard has a proposal he hopes is really appealing. He’d like a foundation to give him money to buy electronic tablets that patrons could use within the library building. [...]