Microsoft to Make $1.1-Million Gift to L.A. Libraries, Schools

Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates plans to announce today a $1.1-million donation to Los Angeles libraries and schools, part of the company’s effort to address new social disparities created by the high-tech revolution it is helping to fuel.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said it will give $500,000 worth of computer software and technical assistance to expand the Los Angeles Public Library’s vast database and allow it to be continually updated with new versions of popular programs.

In addition, Gates--one of the richest men in the world--will contribute $100,000 in cash and software to the electronic training center in the Central Library and $500,000 in software to a Los Angeles County Office of Education project to train teachers in using computers in the classroom.

Gates’ personal donations will be drawn from the $3-million proceeds of his book “The Road Ahead,” a primer on the future of technology that was recently re-released.

The corporate contribution is part of Libraries Online!, a philanthropic effort Microsoft initiated last year. The company will contribute $10.5 million in cash and software this year to set up computing centers in 32 library systems, in addition to nine already running, said Chris Hedrick, the program’s director.

During its first year, the program’s recipients included libraries in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Mississippi’s 18 poorest counties.

“Libraries grew up as the place to deliver equal opportunity to access to books,” Gates said in a recent interview. “We’re looking at whether libraries can play that same role in terms of using PCs, and so far it’s going very, very well.”

Even as the nation moves toward Gates’ goal of “a computer on every desk and in every home,” there is concern that technology’s mounting importance in daily life will widen the social gap between rich and poor.

Only about 20% of Southern California households with annual incomes of less than $25,000 own personal computers, compared to nearly 70% of those with incomes of more than $50,000, according to a recent poll conducted for The Times.

“We owe it to every child, whether rich or poor, to have an equal right to be proficient in the use of computers,” said Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. “They’re the most powerful tools in the history of mankind, and they’re a necessary tool in getting jobs and keeping jobs.

“[Microsoft’s effort] represents an awakening of the world to these problems. Now we have to get the leadership locally to use these assets as a catalyst to get more.”

The bulk of Microsoft’s philanthropy comes in the form of software, which costs the company considerably less than the retail price at which it is valued. And at a time when government funding is scarce and technology costs are high, Microsoft’s donations fill only a small portion of the digital needs of libraries and schools.

Los Angeles County’s Technology for Education Program is seeking to raise $1 billion to complete its five-year plan to provide technology training for the county’s 60,000 teachers and outfit its 1,700 schools with computers. The city’s public library system is soliciting $5 million to complete an electronic network that would link its 61 branches in a “library without walls.”

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But recipients said the software firm’s contributions will enable them to spend their own limited resources for technology elsewhere.

Jae Min Roh, head librarian at the Pio Pico Koreatown branch, said Microsoft’s donation of several computers and word processing, spreadsheet and educational software as part of the Libraries Online! pilot earlier this year has brought more people into the library.

“As you might guess, not many people in this community have their own computer at home, so it has been very useful to people who are just learning how to use them,” Roh said.

The Cahuenga branch also received funding from Microsoft, and the company announced an additional grant in October to provide a computer center at the Mid-Valley branch.

Gates will preside today over the opening of the Central Library’s training center, which will be used by patrons, staff and students of the Electronic Information Magnet School housed in the library.