FUNDING

About Designing and Implementing a Replicable Regional Navigator Sharing Plan

The Digital Navigator Connecticut State Regional Hub has been launched as part of a leadership implementation grant funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Connecticut State Library. 

The CT State Library (CSL), as State Library Administrative Agency (SLAA), in a collaboration with 7 public libraries, has been awarded $249,948 to design and implement, over a 2-year grant cycle, a replicable model for regional sharing of digital navigation services to low-income and under-served residents. This Regional Digital Navigator Sharing Plan will build upon the Salt Lake City navigator model adapted in 2021-2022 by four CT State Library-administered Digital Navigator Pilot Projects, and it will enrich that model to facilitate the participation of libraries who do not have the capacity to independently deploy a team of navigators via a regional collaboration, simultaneously demonstrating efficiencies of scale. 

The Regional Navigator Sharing Plan is designed to:

1. Connect with 2,000 residents in need, meaningfully distribute 300 computers

2. Advance understanding of the benefits and viability of navigation via media interviews and conference presentations

3. Create a toolkit for replication of such a regional sharing collaboration, and expand the layer of library staff with digital inclusion service experience. 

This replicable plan will be strategically disseminated to libraries across the nation that currently suffer low navigation capacity, especially small and rural libraries, increasing the possibility that they can engage in the development of the digital inclusion ecosystem in their region. 

Grant Motivation

According to the IMLS Library Search & Compare data tool, there are 7,348 libraries nationwide with 14 or fewer paid staff people. There are 3,964 libraries classified as rural. While most librarians feel called to develop the digital inclusion ecosystem in their catchment areas, thousands of institutions lack the staffing capacity to field digital navigators on their own. Many larger town libraries with larger paid staff still lack the funding to independently field navigators. Models demonstrating a pathway for the advancement of the digital inclusion are needed. This model emphasizes regional resource sharing between a variety of library systems. Some of the participating libraries are large urban and multi-branch, others serve suburban communities, and two are small libraries located in post-industrial, rural areas.  

Community need in Connecticut is urgent. According to “The Digital Divide in Connecticut,” a 2020 report commissioned by the Connecticut Council of Municipalities and the Dalio Foundation, the gap in access to broadband is dramatic, with 40% of households in Connecticut’s urban centers lacking wireline connections. 

Communities of color are particularly left behind: 31% of African Americans and 37% of Hispanics did not have a working computer at home. A third of households below the state’s median income did not have a computer at home. Households that do not own computers are unlikely to be ready to “meaningfully access” high-speed broadband. This disparity in connectivity cannot be addressed by infrastructure alone. The lack of affordable of internet service, the lack of a computer suitable for education or work tasks, a lack of basic confidence about using the technology, and a lack of trust in commercial or government entities all have been shown to be issues at the heart of the connectivity problem.

As part of the process surrounding the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Act (BEAD), Congress found the following: 

1. Access to affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband is essential to full participation in modern life in the United States.

2. The persistent ‘‘digital divide’’ in the United States is a barrier to the economic competitiveness of the United States.

3. Individuals lacking access to devices and/or reliable internet experience inequity in the distribution of essential public services, including health care and education. 

4. The digital divide disproportionately affects communities of color, lower-income areas, and rural areas, and the benefits of broadband should be broadly enjoyed by all.

5. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical importance of affordable, high-speed broadband for individuals, families, and communities to be able to work, learn and connect remotely while supporting social distancing..

Recent studies strongly suggests that a broadband infrastructure buildout unaccompanied by a comprehensive digital inclusion program will fail to help those most in need of achieving significant social and economic improvements.  Connecticut libraries proved during the 2021-22 Digital Navigation Pilot Projects, that digital inclusion specialists – digital navigators – were successful in helping move individuals forward in their digital participation. 

As state governments struggle to envision multi-year Digital Equity Act plans, digital navigation advocates must demonstrate not only that these models work, but also show that more centralized, cost-effective, and efficient navigator deployment, will move the needle on the number of under-connected residents served.

Who is funding this service?

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which has a mission is to advance, support, and empower America’s museums, libraries, and related organizations through grantmaking, research, and policy development. The Connecticut Public Library is the State Library Administrative Agency (SLAA) that has been awarded the funds and is distributing them as a subaward to the library functioning as the hub for navigator hiring and sharing, device procurement, and data collection, that is the Hamden Public Library.

For more information about the IMLS Leadership Implementation Grant, contact the grant administrator Dawn La Valle or the grant project manager, Christine Gauvreau at the CT State Library via their emails: Dawn.Lavalle@ct.gov and Christine.Gauvreau@ct.gov.