By Jenn Slone, CRCPL Access Director / jslone@crcpl.org

For a decade now, Chillicothe & Ross County Public Library has been serving as a broadband stop-gap, providing WiFi hotspots to patrons in need of connectivity via checkouts of the highly in-demand devices.

We know how desperate our patrons are for connectivity.  While we have hundreds of patrons who utilize our in-library computers with Internet access, and who use the free WiFi in our library branches and parking lots, they still need connectivity at home.  The need it to do homework, to apply for jobs, for online medical appointments, shopping, selling, filing taxes, applying for social services, and running small businesses.  Many people don’t have broadband access where they live; others can’t afford the plans that are available in their area; and some people are just struggling with the learning curve of getting a home network with Internet set up.  WiFi hotspots provide a great solution, allowing 5 or more family members to connect to one device at a time.

If you were lucky, during the Covid-19 pandemic, you were able to take advantage our long-term lending program, where we provided extended lending of 500 hotspots to students and educators.  That program was made possible by the Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), a $7.171 billion endeavor authorized by Congress to meet the needs of students learning from home.  The program was incredibly popular.  All of our hotspots were checked out for the 3-year funding term, with a constant waitlist.

Hotspots aren’t cheap, and libraries have been grasping for a reasonable funding solution. Currently, we’re taking advantage of one of the only low-cost options for library hotspot lending, a partnership through Tech Soup and Mobile Beacon.  That program allows us to secure hotspots for $57 each, with a $10 per month service agreement per device.  But we’re capped at how many devices we can get per location for that discount.  Currently, we have about 70 devices – all checked out – and a 90-person wait list.

But last year, during the Public Library Association’s annual convention in Columbus, hope was delivered to the librarians in attendance.  An announcement was made that eRate, the program that provides schools and libraries with a huge discount on their Internet services (we qualify for a 90 percent discount), was going to pick up the tab on hotspots, too.  The program would be based on the library’s square footage, and a formula would be utilized to tell us how many hotspots we could obtain and lend over a 3-year period.  We spent months negotiating spending caps with ISPs like ATT, T-Mobile and Kajeet.  We applied for the funding.  We prepared to take on about 330 devices that we could lend long-term once again, meeting a huge need throughout Ross County.

Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, on May 6, the Senate voted in favor of a bill that eliminates the eRate hotspot funding.  The House is fully expected to follow suit, hereby dismantling our plan to offer more hotspots to the community.

For the proposed eRate program, the library has set aside our 10 percent match, but funding beyond that is going to be difficult to obtain.  Most government initiatives for connectivity seem to be focused on expanding to satellite Internet, which I admit would be great for our friends in Huntington who don’t have cell service (and WiFi hotspots do run on a cellular network), but there is no talk yet of ISPs being required to offer low-income plans, and libraries are simply being cut out of the conversation.

Additionally, there is a learning curve to using and caring for a WiFi hotspot device.  It’s a piece of tech equipment, so it needs kept in a safe location, not in a hot car or beside the kitchen stove.  You have to keep the cable and case with the device, or if they are missing when returned, you will incur a fee for those.  And it’s pivotal that patrons return their devices when the due date is up.  Like I said, we have a long wait list and others are in need.  We do turn off devices after they are a day late, but we still have trouble getting them back in a timely fashion.

The library will continue to explore ways to make WiFi hotspots available for our patrons, but the landscape is changing, and we’re not sure how sustainable a lending program will be in the future.  If you need Internet access, please stop by any of our library locations for free WiFi (including at our BookHives!) and computers with Internet access.  We understand your needs and are in this fight with you.