What is a Community Access Centre?
The province of New Brunswick currently houses over 150 Community Access Centres. These centres are located in schools, libraries and community centres all over rural New Brunswick. The purpose of a Community Access Centre is to provide affordable public access to the Internet, training courses in current applications, as well as a host of other technology-related services and support.

A Community Access Centre is a personal link to the information highway, current technologies, and most importantly, the benefits each have to offer. It is a place where anyone can have access to educational, social, economic, cultural opportunities and government services. It can be found in a school, a community centre, a library, or any common meeting place within the community. It is a resource managed by and for the community.

Each community is responsible for establishing their own centre in a location convenient and accessible, and which meets the needs of the members. Physical location often determines the operational hours of each centre, i.e. "School sites" which are open after school hours and on weekends allowing the community to fully utilize the existing resources. Partnerships with existing clubs, associations or agencies with need for physical space, allow Access Centres to provide low cost services to the general public while creating value added possibilites for the partners.

Access Centres see themselves primarily as community learning centres, while offering supportive functions such as production services, avenues for electronic commerce and business, places where the general public can access entertainment, and in certain locations, tourist information stops.