From April 5 to April 7, 2011 Sylvia Mathews Burwell, president of the Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation [6], and IREX President W. Robert Pearson will travel to Bucharest to visit the Global Libraries Romania – Biblionet program [7]. Burwell will take part in a national panel discussion on the role that libraries can play in deploying e-government services and visit several of Romania’s rural libraries that are effectively addressing community development challenges.
The $26.9 million Biblionet program is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation over five years and aims to help develop a modern public library system in Romania. Biblionet is a partnership between IREX, the Ministry of Culture, Religious Affairs and National Heritage, Educating for an Open Society (EOS) Foundation, the National Association of Librarians and Public Libraries of Romania (ANBPR) and public libraries across Romania. Microsoft Corp., a partner of the Global Libraries program at the international level, will donate $15 million in software to all libraries.