"We'd been slow to come to technology. We just weren't up to speed before we found TRFN."

"We don't have adequate resources and we're spread thin."

"We had the feeling that everyone but us had a web site."

v
 

Non-Profits on Life Before TRFN:

"We'd been slow to come to technology. We just weren't up to speed before we found TRFN."

"We don't have adequate resources and we're spread thin."

"We had the feeling that everyone but us had a web site."

v

How Non-Profits Describe TRFN's Role in Pittsburgh:

"The Free-Net is the single greatest access opportunity for minorities and the poor to bridge the 'digital divide.'"

"TRFN brings a greater sense of community to Pittsburgh."

v
 

Comments on TRFN's Staff:

"The staff are very responsive."

"I can always call back for technical assistance when I get stuck."

"We can go at our own pace."

"They are not condescending; they don't talk down."

v
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

How TRFN Training Impacts Individuals:

"I warmed up to the learning."

"I literally spend hours learning and I want to do more."

"People are impressed with what I can do as an 'old geezer.'"

"I gained confidence."

v  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

What Organizations Gain from Working with TRFN:

"We have experienced more camaraderie with other organizations."

"TRFN has helped us gain an incredible visibility."

"TRFN helped our constituents understand the value of the Internet."

"It has provided opportunities for partnering."

v

Introduction
"Free to the People" is something of a mantra for the librarians at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (CLP). This phrase, originally spoken by Andrew Carnegie, the library's founder, is the first thing you see as you approach the stone facade of CLP's main branch. The ideals of community, public service, and access that the words imply are ones that all public librarians strive to achieve. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the Three Rivers Free-Net (TRFN), an electronic community network funded by the CLP, housed at the main library, and run by librarians would take these words to heart. In August of 1999, our research team visited TRFN and talked with its staff members as well as its library and community partners. In that time, Carnegie's words came up repeatedly, spoken by librarians, TRFN staff, and members of non-profit groups. One non-profit staffer, citing Carnegie, stated matter-of-factly, "The 'free' part of the Free-Net is important." TRFN represents a powerful model of a community network built upon public library principles. What follows are our team's impressions of this noteworthy library-community network partnership.

History and Philosophy
The Free-Net was born in the mid-1990s through a LSCA (the predecessor to IMLS) grant awarded to the CLP. Today, TRFN is funded entirely though the CLP's budget, which pays the salaries of  three on-site staff members as well as a part-time systems administrator who works off-site. Susan Holmes, the project manager for TRFN, has been a librarian for a number of years and uses the skills for organization and community building that she honed on the library floor. Maureen Pollard, TRFN's Community Network Specialist oversees training initiatives. Meanwhile, Automation Librarian Cathy Chaparro is responsible for maintaining TRFN's Subject Guide and addressing technical issues.

On the web site, TRFN's mission is described as facilitating "the collection, organization and dissemination of Pittsburgh regional information in a public space." Its constituents include any potential user of the site in southwestern Pennsylvania, as well as all locally-based non-profit and governmental agencies. TRFN serves the population at large in many ways, perhaps most importantly by providing access to information on thousands of regional (as well as valuable national and international) non-profit organizations. Likewise, the Free-Net serves local agencies by making it easier for the public, volunteers, and funders to find information about them. TRFN does this by carefully organizing links to resources on its web site and by offering server space and web site training to non-profit organizations. Many of TRFN's services are provided at no cost.
 To the top

An Alternate Geography
When Pittsburgh residents describe their home, the term "provincial" is likely to come up. In this, Pittsburgh is a product of its geography. Many of the characteristics that make Pittsburgh a scenic place--its three rivers, its many neighborhoods built upon rolling hills--are also those that tend to separate municipalities from each other. This results in a patchwork of towns and boroughs that oftentimes do not communicate well with each other or collaborate on programs. In fact, there are 130 municipalities in Allegheny County--TRFN's home county--alone. Ironically, despite (or perhaps because of) the tendency towards "provincialism," the non-profit network in Pittsburgh is extensive--there are over 3000 health and human service organizations in the area--and tightly knit. Area non-profits are very much interested in working together to solve problems and TRFN works to build connections between Pittsburgh's many dispersed resources so that they can make things happen.

Author Paul Bowles once wrote that "the only effort worth making is the one it takes to learn the geography of one's own nature." In a sense, by working to link in cyberspace non-profits that don't easily meet in real space, TRFN does just that; it creates an internal geography to counter Pittsburgh's segmented physical geography. In this goal, TRFN is supported by its relationship with the Electronic Information Network for Public Libraries in Allegheny County (EIN), which is working to build an "electronic network [that] will provide libraries in the county with cost-effective access to an electronic tool  that enhances library planning,  management, communication, and resource building and creates an electronically integrated library system."

TRFN builds a virtual community in part through the thoughtful construction of its web site. When you give a passing glance to the TRFN subject guide, which outlines the structure of the site, you see an arrangement quite similar to Yahoo's homepage or the hundreds of Yahoo copyists on the Net.

However, upon closer examination you find that, instead of the somewhat haphazard  structure of Yahoo!, TRFN is built with a librarian's eye for organization. The site is divided into 20 carefully considered subject areas, ranging from Cultural Activities to Employment to Social Services. These, in turn, lead to more detailed subcategories and, ultimately, to specific resources in the Pittsburgh area and elsewhere. Organizations that can fit under more than one category are cross-referenced to give users as many logical points of access as possible. Not only does this make it easier for TRFN users to find what they are looking for, it also helps unify Pittsburgh's non-profit community. Groups interested in, say, adoption can find like-minded groups categorized on the same page. In addition, agencies who have yet to build a presence on the Internet can look to TRFN's subject pages for inspiration.

The TRFN Subject Guide is one in a series of CLP guides that are designed to make information more accessible for area residents.

 To the top

Teaching and Preaching
While providing access to agency information for the Pittsburgh community is an impressive accomplishment in itself, the staff at TRFN feels that serving as a  passive portal to these resources is insufficient. Their definition of "access" is more broad. It requires that TRFN take active steps to assure non-profit and government agencies are able to reach out to the community. Because they recognize that many non-profit organizations operate on a shoestring and are therefore not likely to have a surplus of resources (funds and staff) to devote to creating web pages, TRFN hosts agency pages on its own server. This is no small commitment. Not only does TRFN provide non-profits (which the Free Net staff refer to as "information providers," or IPs) with server space and one free email account per group, they also offer training classes on setting up an effective page, using HTML and email, and more. Because many non-profit agencies don't have access to the latest equipment or technical advice, this level of training is essential to TRFN's mission. The trainers at TRFN receive consistently high marks from the IPs they serve.

IPs are required to participate in an account class, which covers how to connect with TRFN, basic UNIX commands, text editing, email, and File Transfer Protocol. A second optional course focuses on HTML. In addition, the Free-Net offers an open lab where IPs can work on the content and design of their pages and turn to TRFN staff members as needed for advice and technical assistance.  While teaching is the primary order of the day for TRFN's trainers, they also take the sessions as an opportunity to do some low-key "preaching" as well.  For example, oftentimes agency staff who attend the classes are not entirely sold on the idea of a web page. (They may have been "sent" by an enthusiastic board member.) In these situations, the trainers work to sell the notion of a site as a means of local, state, national, and international exposure. In addition, trainers encourage new IPs to link with related agencies--with an emphasis on those in southwestern Pennsylvania--both to serve users and to support sister organizations. Because non-profit groups are in the business of helping people, this idea is readily embraced. As one non-profit staff member put it, "In the non-profit community, we want to help each other out, so we should provide links to related organizations whenever appropriate."

New software on the horizon will allow non-profits to easily build their own websites with much less training.  At that point, the challenge to TRFN staff will be how to continue to instill in community non-profits that the success of virtual community lies at least in part in the linkages that non-profits themselves make to other IPs. In other words, while TRFN's teaching role may lessen over time, the "preaching" component will still be needed.

Lists, At Your Service
TRFN uses listservs as another method of building relationships among IPs.  All IPs are required to sign up for the Information Provider listserv, which the Free-Net describes as a tool that "enables the TRFN staff to communicate with ALL of the TRFN Information Providers and for the Information Providers to ask questions of us and each other." In addition, IPs are encouraged to participate in the Non-profit Organizations Mailing List, which is intended to "promote the flow of information among Southwestern Pennsylvania non-profit organizations." Meanwhile, the TRFN Technical Issues list is "dedicated to the discussion of technical issues related to TRFN…among interested TRFN Information Providers, TRFN volunteers and TRFN staff."

 To the top

Success Stories
During our Pittsburgh visit, we spoke with a variety of Information Providers and many explained how their collaboration with TRFN strengthened their organization and assisted their clientele. A common thread that ran through many of the stories we heard was the impact of technology. Technology was never described as an end in itself but rather as a means of reaching out to the community.  Here are a handful of success stories:
 

• The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) is a newcomer to TRFN. Its site provides information on health topics--from Air Quality to Workplace Hazards--that are of interest to the region. County risk levels and prevention methods are discussed, agency plans for addressing problems are considered, and links to related resources are provided. In our interview with Mary Jones and Dave Piposar from ACHD, they praised TRFN's efforts--in conjunction with EIN--to make information accessible to underserved communities via library computers: "TRFN is the single greatest opportunity of access for minorities." In addition, they noted the Health Department's partnership with the Free-Net was a natural because "neither is out to make a profit or take advantage and both are their to bring more information to the community."

• Dave Noble is the director of the Radio Information Service (RIS), which broadcasts readings from newspapers, magazines, and books for the visually impaired. While RIS currently broadcasts over FM radio, they have started to make their programs available on demand via Real Audio streaming on their TRFN web page. Noble sees this technology as a way to give "blind drivers a lane on the information superhighway." TRFN also serves RIS' clientele by requiring that all of its web pages are designed to be easily accessible for the visually impaired.

• Mike Bookser, the chief of the Bellevue Police Department feels that TRFN is a tool for making government more responsive and approachable. He hopes that, by giving people the opportunity to interact with the department anonymously online, they will be more likely to turn to it for answers. Bookser also praised TRFN's trainers for tailoring a training session to suit his experience. His experiences with the Free Net have been so positive that he encouraged other organizations--including the Borough of Bellevue, St. Cyril School, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving--to sign up as Information Providers.

• The Three Rivers Center for Independent Living (TRCIL) strives to "empower people with disabilities to live self-directed, productive, and personally-meaningful lives in a self-determined setting." Leila Rao of TRCIL was particularly proud of the online version of the Access Guide to Pittsburgh which appears on their TRFN-sponsored page. The guide offers information on access to parking, buildings, restrooms, telephones, water fountains, etc. provided by local businesses to persons with disabilities. Rao also noted that funding was offered to her organization by a foundation that "discovered" TRCIL's web page on TRFN.

• Additional success stories are accessible via the TRFN web site.

What makes TRFN Unique?
As paradoxical as it seems, the aspects of TRFN that make it distinctive in the world of electronic community networking are the ones that it shares in common with its counterpart in the brick-and-mortar world: the public library. (Of course, considering that TRFN is a department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the resemblance is hardly surprising.) While the profile above mentioned several library-oriented characteristics of TRFN, a few bear repeating:

• Like the CLP, TRFN has a local focus while still linking to the larger world.
• Both, true to Andrew Carnegie's wishes, offer most of their services free of charge. Their decisions are not colored by a profit motive.
• The Free Net and the library it is a part of both have traditions of public service.
• Each is dedicated to reaching out to underserved groups. Access is of paramount importance.

Everyone Has a Library Story
Libraries impact the lives of all community residents in manifold ways. As Herb Elish, the director of the Carnegie Library puts it, "Everyone has a library story." TRFN is an important part of that story in Pittsburgh. Other noteworthy community-building programs offered by the library include its Foundation Center and Job and Career Education Center. For more information on the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and its Three Rivers Free-Net, please refer to their web pages.