BPL's concept is to provide Internet access to all staff members to build in house expertise, then establish a BPL home page and provide web links to related web pages. The reference desk uses Gopher service from Victoria. BPL is part of the South Texas Library System office. Other libraries in the area have not comparable progress because of lack of funding. City leadership is not as progressive as that of the BPL and thus the telecommunications network for the advanced system was built into the facility from the start.
Brownsville residents have no public access to Internet.
The South Texas Library System had a lottery to provide one year of assistance to ten primary and seven alternate member libraries to give staff members access to the Internet. The alternate libraries will receive assistance if funds permit. BPL was one of the selected libraries. The BPL staff feels that a library should have the ability to get information for their patrons or allowing patrons to get information themselves. They currently get requests from the City Planning Dept. for information on pending legislation, as well as requests from the City Purchasing Department on information on state bid requirements.