Gates foundation awards $86,000 to KC libraries

The libraries in several Missouri communities will be the beneficiaries of a national campaign funded by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates to bring Internet access to the poor.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving the Kansas City Public Library about $86,000 -- enough for 30 computers, eight laser printers, training and software.

Seven towns across Missouri also will benefit. Computer labs, loaded with projectors and Spanish keyboards, will go to Bonne Terre, Dexter, West Plains, Camdenton, Nevada, Gallatin and Moberly.

The grants are part of a national program to provide Internet access to poor people, especially children. By 2003, the foundation, which focuses on communities with a poverty rate of 10 percent or more, will buy computers for more than 9,500 libraries.

In Kansas City, the equipment and software are being ordered. The library usually spends about $140,000 a year on public computers.