Bell Atlantic Foundation Awards $75,000 Grant to the Montclair Free Public Library

Bell Atlantic Foundation Awards $75,000 Grant
to the Montclair Free Public Library

Montclair Becomes First Community Library in
New Jersey with a Distance Learning Facility

July 1, 1998

NEWARK, N.J. -- The Montclair Free Public Library accepted a $75,000
grant from the Bell Atlantic Foundation during a ceremony today at the
library's main building on South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair.

The library will use the money to connect an auditorium to Bell Atlantic's
Interactive Distance Learning Service (IDLS) -- a statewide, interactive,
voice-and-video education network.

Bell Atlantic -- New Jersey President and CEO William M. Freeman said
the Montclair library is the first public library in New Jersey to connect to
Bell Atlantic's IDLS network, putting it in the vanguard of the information
age.

"At this library, patrons will be able see performances of plays they've
read," Freeman said. "They'll read books about competing political
theories and then discuss them with people from across the state. IDLS
will allow every idea they absorb from the written page to be tested and
refined in the crucible of shared experience."

The Interactive Distance Learning Service will allow students and library
patrons in Montclair to participate in classes, lectures, theatrical
presentations, debates, panel discussions and other events of interest that
take place at 186 schools and colleges across the state.

Events at the library also can be broadcast to all 186 sites on the IDLS
network.

Library officials hope to use the IDLS facility to offer literacy tutoring,
classes in English as a second language and child development, lectures by
visiting authors and illustrators, business workshops and safety programs.

Today's grant to the Montclair Free Public Library is one more expression
of Bell Atlantic's continuing commitment to bringing the latest information
technology to New Jersey's schools and libraries.

In April, the company awarded nearly $100,000 in Access New Jersey
information technology grants to public libraries across the state.

The Bell Atlantic Foundation supports a variety of projects domestically
and internationally, with an emphasis on new technology applications in
education, health and human services, the arts and humanities, and civic
development in the communities served by Bell Atlantic. For more
information, visit www.bellatlanticfoundation.com on the Internet.

Bell Atlantic -- formed through the merger of Bell Atlantic and NYNEX --
is at the forefront of the new communications and information industry.
With more than 41 million telephone access lines and 6.7 million wireless
customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are premier providers of
advanced wireline voice and data services, market leaders in wireless
services and the world's largest publishers of directory information. Bell
Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest investors in high-
growth global communications markets, with operations and investments in
23 countries.