The infusion from CARES, and especially off of really had a
fun fundamental impact on the way you could set up libraries
for the future in Rhode Island.
With the CARES funding, we helped our libraries reopen by
providing them with protective equipment and ways to do
programming that was safe.
Outdoor programming, virtual programming.
So we provided grants to every single Public Library, and our
libraries in Rhode Island were the first libraries to reopen in
New England.
Thanks to the cares funding that came through with ARPA, we
granted all that money out individually to up update
technology, especially in our economically distressed
communities.
So we provided a lot of new computers in libraries, we
funded book machines, self checked machines in the
libraries, and added other technology that could continue
the virtual programming services that are lingering after the
pandemic.