Building tribal community
support for technology access
Loriene Roy
School of Information, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarize the impact of a grant to fund staffing part-time
technology staff at centers on six reservations in Arizona, USA. The grant was designed to determine
whether tribal communities would be able to support part-time technology staff positions at the end of
a one-year funding period.
Design/methodology/approach – Evaluation of the grant was conducted through on-site visits,
interviews with technology staff, grant managers, student interns, and selected American Indian
patrons of the technology sites.
Findings – Results indicate that a successful technology training site was dependent on several
factors, including the personality and dedication of the technology staff, the location of the center, and
the customized services provided. Nine recommendations from the study are identified, including the
establishment of state-level advisory and financial support, sharing of information among sites,
building local capacity, continuing education for technology staff, continuance of the graduate student
internship program, and continued contact with community technologies as a possible recruiting
ground for graduate LIS programs.
Originality/value – Until now little information has been available on how to introduce technology
services at information settings in Indian country within the USA.
Keywords Computers, Information services, Internet, Native Americans, United States of America
Paper type Case study
Introduction
In 2002, the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records received funding from
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a 12-month project to expand services at
Gates Technology Training Sites in six tribal communities. This grant was titled,
“Building tribal community support for sustainability of technology access and
training” (BTCS). The sites had previously received donations of hardware and
software from the Foundation’s Native American Access to Technology Program
(NAATP) (Gordon et al., 2003). The NAATP grant also funded training support from
graduate student interns from the University of Arizona and technical assistance via a
telephone hotline.
The purpose of the BTCS grant was to:
.
recruit, train, and support a tribal community member to serve as a new
technology community technician (TCT) at an established gates technology
training site;
.
provide internships in indian country for university of arizona school of
information resources and library science (sirls) graduate students;
.
support the TCTs in developing, marketing, and delivering technology training
for tribal members; and
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
Support for
technology
access
517
Received 2 March 2006
Revised 31 March 2006
Accepted April 2006
The Electronic Library
Vol. 24 No. 4, 2006
pp. 517-529
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470610689205