Volume 4. No 4 Information Technology News of the University of California, Davis December 1995

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Network Will Deliver Literacy Services to 15 Counties

Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Information Technology will help develop a 15-county regional telecommunications network aimed at delivering literacy services throughout greater Sacramento and the outlying rural areas of northeastern California and western Nevada.

Dubbed the Net at Two Rivers Literacy and Lifelong Learning Project (N2R-LLL), the network will be developed through the collaborative efforts of over 40 organizations. UC Davis, the Davis Community Network, California State University Sacramento, Sacramento Area Literacy Coalition, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network, Nevada County Community Network, El Dorado County Community Network, and Tahoe Truckee Community Network are among the groups participating in the project.

Vicki Suter of I.T.'s Distributed Computing Analysis and Support is technical project coordinator. Suter, who worked with the other participants to develop and submit the grant proposal through the Sacramento County Office of Education, traveled with the Net at Two Rivers Executive Directors Cynthia Mulit and Barb Englund to Washington, D.C. in November to accept the grant and attend program briefings.

The Department of Commerce has awarded $763,577 under the Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP) to this project. The award provides 33% of total project funding, with partners contributing 67% or $1,521,177.

The Net at Two Rivers Project will provide online training for literacy service providers and give remote communities access to national and state databases, coursework, and other end-user activities. Services will be deliveredthrough community centers, schools, libraries, workplaces, government facilities, and homes.

The project will also provide opportunities for distance learning with online interaction between students and instructors, using the Internet as a communication medium.

If you have questions about the Net at Two Rivers Project, send an e-mail message to Vicki Suter at vnsuter@ucdavis.edu.