WIFI Hotspots for Student Checkout

Rural communities still struggle with internet access, which can lead to serious challenges for college students. My library had debated circulating WIFI hotspots to students for years but concerns of price and managing them held us back. After the switch to online learning in 2020, we began researching WIFI hotspots again to see if we might make them available for our students. There were no shortage of local public libraries who were offering them to patrons, so we knew it could be done. We eventually determined that T-Mobile was a frequent partner with several public libraries so we reached out to them about the costs and other details. After meeting with some of their representatives, we found the costs reasonable and signed on for 12 WIFI hotspots that we would offer to students beginning in the 2021-22 academic year. Our early results were positive with there being many periods when every hotspot was checked out. We could only help so many students at once with 12 hotspots, but the students we did help let us know our help mattered a lot. We also found the hotspots were useful to fellow employees. We sometimes circulate them to help staff who are travelling on college business to areas without internet access. One afternoon our regular ISP went down, bringing work to a halt in every department, except the Library with out little hotspots ready to go.

We have had some bumps along the way, however. A few students dropped out and never returned their hotspots. Hotspots can disappear just as easily as books. Hotspots also require some management. Unused hotspots need to be deactivated to prevent monthly charges for them, then reactivated when circulated. None of this is too time consuming but libraries should be aware these aren’t set it and forget it devices. If you’re curious, our hotspot policies page has some more details. Of course, you can always reach out to me at akirby@pennhighlands.edu if you have questions about circulating hotspots at your library.