OPAL Technology Trendsetters Grants 2014
Successful Grant Applicants
Council
Project Description
Amount
Requested
Amount
Approved
Balonne Shire
Council
River Country Recollections
An oral history project that will research, record, collate, digitise, preserve and provide access to oral history
material relating to the Balonne Shire.
$14,320
$12,000
Barcaldine
Regional Council
Digitising Barcaldine Regional Council Library Services local history resources
To digitise local history collections as an intra-library project to promote and facilitate online discovery and
engagement with community-rich resources for each of the five libraries in the Barcaldine Regional Council.
$25,000
$20,000
Blackall Tambo
Regional Council
Hooked Up, Hooked On
To provide library members with suitable digital equipment to borrow from Blackall and Tambo libraries to
enable access to eresources provided through the RLQ collection.
$3,651
$4,000
Douglas Shire
Council
Wi-Fi for Douglas Libraries
To provide wi-fi access and internet training to library users and visitors at Mossman and Port Douglas
libraries, and purchase of tablets and ereaders to provide digital learning opportunities for the community.
$14,554
$12,000
Gold Coast City
Council
Suburban Snaps capturing the Gold Coast's suburbs
To provide a voice to residents from diverse backgrounds who reside outside the more famous tourist areas
of the Gold Coast, and support them in expressing, capturing and sharing their vision of contemporary Gold
Coast life. The project includes digital literacy training, digital story-telling, and social sharing of completed
projects through platforms such as HistoryPin and Picture Gold Coast.
$18,280
$14,000
Goondiwindi
Regional Council
Online Access Project
To install free wi-fi access in three library branches (Goondiwindi, Texas and Inglewood); develop "learning
lounges" at each branch, and purchase iPads to increase access to RLQ's eresources.
$13,623
$13,000
Isaac Regional
Council
Technology Trendsetters
To provide ongoing library technology programs that support both library staff and the community in the use
of new technology, hardware and core etechnology. The project will connect, train and up-skill library staff in
the area of smart technology (ereaders, iPads, smart phone) while creating a knowledge base toolkit, for
staff to utilise, support and teach to the community.
$16,200
$16,000
Longreach
Regional Council
Hi WiFi and iPad Happenings
To provide free access to wi-fi within the Longreach Shire libraries (Longreach, Isisford and Ilfracombe) for
three years, and purchase of 12 iPads for staff and community training. The project will enable engagement
of online resources and digital literacy via 'hands on' demonstrations and training, and will increase the
awareness and up-take of econtent in the RLQ collection.
$22,382
$20,000
Council
Project Description
Amount
Requested
Amount
Approved
Mareeba Shire
Council
Get mobile – Get into your Library:
$11,998.25
A project to purchase for the library a range of e-devices (tablets, e-readers, etc) which can be used by the
community to increase access to e-content and improve digital literacy skills. The library will provide a series
of basic and intermediate training sessions designed to allow the community to explore the affordances of
these devices, and how to use them to access the library resources. Training sessions will include:
 basic features of the devices including e-mail, calendar, apps, QR codes, social media, History Pin, wi-fi
access, and data management
 how to use the devices to access e-content from the collection.
These training sessions will be embedded as part of ongoing library services to the community and will be
adapted overtime to be responsive to the needs of the community.
Noosa Shire
Council
Get Appy Together
To create an interactive group workspace designed around a large interactive smart table. It will encourage
users to collaborate as a group to explore new technology, create content and engage with modern appbased formats.
$21,887
$20,000
Redland City
Council
Redland Libraries Coding Club
To implement a coding program for school-aged children to support digital literacy development. Open
source course materials and software will be used. The grant will fund the purchase of laptops, Raspberry
Pis, USB drives and related resources to support the development of computer programming skills.
$24,400
$17,000
Sunshine Coast
Regional Council
Technology Trendsetters Sunshine Coast
To promote and establish collaborative engagements between Sunshine Coast libraries, community groups
and library members using internet (wi-fi) platforms and devices. Library staff will train, share, experiment
and work with community groups and library patrons on a range of devices (Android, iPad, ereaders,
Microsoft).
$22,553
$17,000
Tablelands
Regional Council
No Strings Attached!
To implement wi-fi in three library branches, and provide a suite of digital literacy sessions to users of all
ages, including a school holiday program to promote eresources
$25,000
$15,000
Toowoomba
Regional Council
Country Roads - creating technology pathways
To create a network of online local history distributed collections for Oakey and regional areas. These
collections will include digital photos, stories and oral histories, and a community project blog.
$15,000
$12,000
TOTAL
$8,000
$200,000