To help meet citizens' information needs, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has announced the launch of a $3.3 million initiative to expand digital access and training at libraries around the country.

The initiative will work to increase local citizens' access to computers and the Internet at libraries in twelve communities: Aberdeen, South Dakota; Akron, Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbus and Milledgeville, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; Grand Forks, North Dakota; Lexington, Kentucky; Tallahassee and Miami-Dade and Broward counties, Florida; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; and Wichita, Kansas. Grants awarded through the initiative will be used to establish mobile computer labs, recruit and train multi-lingual technology teachers, enable individuals to use computers for employment searches and career research, and install wireless Internet access.

The initiative comes on the heels of a report from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy which found that U.S. democracy is threatened by the lack of equal access to quality information. According to the report, funding public libraries to help them become centers of digital and media training is one key to addressing the access gap.

"Digital access is essential to first class citizenship in our society," said Knight Foundation president and CEO Alberto Ibarg�en. "Without digital, you lack full access to information, you are second class economically and even socially. If a job application at Wal-Mart or MacDonald's must be made online, how can we pretend that we have equal opportunity if significant portions of our communities don't have access? Libraries can be part of the solution."