The Bent Mountain Library may be small, but it has a lot to offer and recently was approved the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Grant.

The purpose of the online grates was to help public libraries improve the quality of free computer access used by Americans. The program has helped generate more than $4 million in local funds for technology services.

The online grants will help upgrade computer hardware in public libraries serving communities with hgih concentrations of poverty that are at risk of having outdated technology.

"The Board of Supervisors voted in April to provide the funds," Diana Rosapepe, Director of Library Services with Roanoke County Library said. "We had our commitment so we could apply for the grant, and we've been approved for it. We don;'t have the money from the Gates Foundation yet, because it is a staged process."

But Rosapepe says they will receive the money is two separate checks, the first of which will arrive after November.

As receivers of the grant, the Roanoke County Library System will be required to attend the advocacy group workshop in Greensboro, North Carolina and conduct an online audit of equipment to provide documentation that the funds are in place.

Bent Mountain will receive new computers. Their old computers will be send along a chain of command and used elsewhere. The rest of the money will be used for additional software and/or support staff training.

"Part of what the Gates Foundation is trying to accomplish with the advocacy piece is to encourage library supporters to speak up for their libraries and be advocates for their system," Rosapepe said. "Everyone knows that libraries are not well funded. There are usually high priorities."

This is the second of three rounds of Opportunity Online grants. more than 800 library branches in Alaska, Connecticut, Main, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington state are eligible in this round.

Libraries must provide local matching funds to receive the grants and the required local commitment nationwide is expected to total $4.1 million.

According to a recent national survey, four out of five public libraries say they don't have enough computers to meet their community's needs. Sixty percent of libraries say that they do not plan to add public computers within the year because of limited funding and space. About one-third of public libraries experienced a decline in revenue from 2000 to 2005.

The Bent Mountain Library is a branch of the Roanoke County Library. The Bent Mountain branch offers summer acitivies, reading to kids, games and crafts, access to computers, a copy machine, DVDs, many books, a Children's Library, newspapers, magazines, tutoring, a book drop, and reference books.

"We usually get the newest and most popular books. So it doesn't take shelf space," Librarian Gladys Walters said.

And if they don't have a book on their shelves, they can request the book from one of the other branches. The Bent Mountain Library receives those deliveries three times a week.

"What we don't have, we have good access to," Walters said.

The Bent Mountain Branch was started in 1968 by the Bent Mountain Women's Club. They have been at their current location since the 1990s, but the book mobile was running even before 1968, according to Walters.

Walters has been around since the beginning, working with the library for over 40 years. Cheryl Waldron, Walter's co-worker also serves as a librarian of Bent Mountain Library.

"I love to do this and I love to read," she said. "I think we've come a long, long way. It did take us a few years to say we hold our own- to say we're moving."

Bent Mountain Library hours:
Monday and Friday: 1 - 5 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday: 5 - 9 p.m.
Wednesday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

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