CLR Case Studies--

Local Information Resources

The diversity of Broward County is mirrored in the library's profusion of electronic resources, most of which are accessible through dedicated terminals located throughout the main library, regional libraries, or branches. There are, for example, separate terminals for access to Wiseguide, the Broward system's online catalog, which also offers connections to CD-ROM databases; to a Job Information System operated by the Florida Jobs and Benefits Center; to the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System (FDLRS), which offers services to gifted and special education students; to the Commercial Public Access Program, which supplies local government information through the County Commission, Clerk of the Courts, and Property Appraiser's Office; to a state government kiosk that provides legislative information from Tallahassee; to a children's kiosk in the main library and in one other branch that is funded by the Broward Public Library Foundation and provides wildlife information for juveniles.

Recognizing the need to bring resources together, the library has been working with the Broward County Resources Coordinating Council, a group comprising the top chief executive officers from different agencies and organizations in the community. The group originally conducted a needs assessment for the community. An important result was the realization that there were several discrete databases in the county that were not linked or interrelated in any way. The library and the Coordinating Council have prompted the notion of a wired community. The creation of two organizations, Broward Access to Information System (BRAINS) and Community Helpers Organized in Information Centers to Empower Society (CHOICES), has enhanced interagency communication. These are outgrowths of the community needs assessment, which was published in 1995. The idea behind BRAINS is that there is a great deal of information available through individual agencies (and existing networks) that could be shared through a single system; the idea behind CHOICES is that there are existing sites (schools, law enforcement agencies, businesses, religious institutions, and families) around the county that could be connected through a network.

Working with BRAINS and CHOICES, the library and the Coordinating Council are developing a kiosk project to locate in remote sites around the county. The library installed the first two kiosks in shopping malls in 1996 in cooperation with the Broward Public Library Foundation. The kiosks provide access to a variety of information--some online, some on CD-ROMs--and, in addition to library databases, will include linkages to First Call for Help (a social service reference tool that directs users to the best and quickest source of help within the community), job information, and other social agency information. The kiosk project, says Harriet Buchbinder, the library's public services administrator, represents a giant step forward in Broward County. It means, she says, that "the walls to shared information are tumbling down."

The SEFLIN Free-net

At the cornerstone of these efforts is the multitype library consortium, SEFLIN, which was founded in 1984. SEFLIN is a separate, non-profit, tax-exempt organization with member libraries in Broward County, Dade County, Palm Beach County, and Martin County. Its mission is to provide timely access to the information resources of member libraries. The Broward County Libraries Division was a founding member of SEFLIN, and the SEFLIN offices and staff are located at Broward's main library. SEFLIN serves a combined population of 4.3 million residents in the four counties. Funding comes from a combination of dues from member libraries and federal, state, and county grants.

In June 1994, SEFLIN libraries expanded their services by developing the SEFLIN Free-net, an affiliate of the National Public Telecomputing Network (NPTN). The SEFLIN libraries provided the leadership to implement the community-based network, which began with a pilot project in Broward County. The Free-net, which offers different editions to the residents of the separate member counties, is a public service built "by the community, for the community" with the leadership of libraries in the region. Cooperation is the foundation of the SEFLIN philosophy and is making the vision of a "connected information community" a reality. The Free-net enables community groups to load information online; it also links library systems throughout the region and provides access to Internet resources. Remote access to the SEFLIN Free-net in homes and offices is provided through the dial-in access lines of the library systems of Broward County, Palm Beach County, and Dade County. The community colleges and universities in the region provide access through their institutional networks.

The success of SEFLIN, says Susan Skyzinski, associate director of public services, is based on community expectations and values. According to the libraries' professional staff, SEFLIN is reaching many people in the area and is having a great impact on all the Broward County library's services. SEFLIN staff coordinate the Free-net, and staff from member libraries provide Free-net marketing demonstrations and training sessions for the community. More than 100 community members serve on the three county-based Free-net advisory committees appointed by the SEFLIN board of directors. SEFLIN libraries train about 1,000 people monthly in the region. More than 400 community groups have become information providers. More than 43,000 people have registered for Free-net accounts. Log-ins totaled 1,087,094 during the first year and have increased to 1,351,039 within the first seven months of fiscal year 1995-96. This year, SEFLIN was awarded a federal NTIA/TIIAP grant to focus on training the Hispanic, African-American, Haitian, and multicultural users and on recruiting multicultural community groups to become information providers.