The EIFL-PLIP (Public Library Innovation Programme) published on its website a story on how the villagers of Glavinci in Central Serbia managed to obtain, with the help of their library, high speed internet for the whole village.

AgroLib-Ja: free internet & online farm market

The Glavinci village library is part of the EIFL-PLIP supported "AgroLib-Ja" service for farmers.

AgroLib-Ja provides free access to computers and the Internet in four village libraries. The service includes an information sharing website for farmers, but is also about librarians training farmers to use the Internet to find information about modern farming methods, government grants and other opportunities online.

The farmers used their new computer skills to develop a lively online farm produce market – AgroLib – and are now selling fruit, dairy produce, vegetables, honey and handicrafts over the Internet.

Villagers from Glavinci demand faster Internet

AgroLib-Ja became extremely popular, with growing numbers of farmers and their families using the Internet in their local libraries. But in Glavinci there was a problem: the Internet connection was too slow to meet farmers needs. Therefore the villagers from Glavinci organized a petition to demand high-speed Internet. It worked. Now over 4,500 people from Glavinci and two nearby villages have access to high speed wireless Internet in their homes and in their village library.

Read the full story at the EIFL website