Devices and internet accessibility are two crucial necessities to help close the digital divide. As difficult as it can be for libraries to pull together those resources, it’s often still not enough, as patrons often lack the digital literacy skills to use the devices or connect to the internet. TSLAC’s Library Digital Opportunity team recently spoke with Ty Beauchamp, Division Director for Information Technology at Harris County Public Library, to talk about their hotspot and Chromebook program, HCPL Connected.
This ground-breaking program was one of the reasons HCPL went on to win the Institute of Library and Museum Services 2024 National Medal. It’s the nation’s highest honor given to institutions that demonstrate excellence in service to their communities.
The program was unprecedented nationwide, at the time, for the sheer number of hotspots and Chromebooks HCPL was able to procure—an astonishing 70,000! It also forged into uncharted waters by making the hotspots lifetime checkouts for their patrons, which meant that there was no expectation that the devices would be returned to the library. Ty had a front row seat for the implementation, growing pains, and evolution of the program.
LDO: What is HCPL Connected and what was the origin of the program?
Ty: It was the brainchild of Megan LeMaster, Chris Martinez, and Edward Melton. At the time Megan was the research and development Division Director, Chris was the IT (Information Technology) Division Director, and Edward was and remains our Executive Director. They knew about the FCC’s ECF (Emergency Connectivity Fund) fund and thought we should apply. It was meant to be a community-wide internet connectivity campaign for Harris County residents. That was in 2021, I think. We got the grant funds and then partnered with T-Mobile, launching the program in February of 2022. We got 40,000 hotspots from T-Mobile and 1,500 Chromebooks from Dell. Chris and Megan really built the plane in mid-air, and Edward pushed to dramatically expand the scope of the program.
LDO: What was your role in the program?
Ty: Initially, my involvement was to build the web interface. HCPL had worked this out with USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company) beforehand. We wanted to classify the hotspots and Chromebooks as library materials, cataloging them into the ILS (Integrated Library System). Other libraries were checking them out and expected them back, but Harris County thought about making them lifetime checkouts, in perpetuity ownership but the patrons would just renew every two weeks. We got approval from USAC to do it. Now we needed an interface so the constituent could certify they didn’t have this device or any internet in their home. Most libraries use paper forms, but we created a web portal to do it.
LDO: How did it go?
Ty: We’ve had two rounds of the program. In the first round, we had the 40,000 hotspots with 5g and the 1,500 Chromebooks. The Dell Chromebooks just flew off the shelves. They were just gone in no time with people checking them out. But the hotspots did not move as fast at first. It’s really a digital literacy problem. Everyone knows what a laptop does but not a lot of people understand hotspots.
By the second round, we went with 15,000 Acer Chromebooks and T-Mobile did 40,000 hotspots. We had planned this for June of 2021, but it ended up happening a lot later at the end of 2022.
The challenge in the first round was that one vendor was able to handle white glove services better than the other. We didn’t know this until we were in the process. Megan was scanning the hotpots manually into the ILS on the loading dock. We also realized that it’s great to have connectivity and the devices but without the digital literacy skills to use the devices and connect to the internet it’s really difficult.
“We changed lives with this program” – Ty Beauchamp, Harris County Public Library
LDO: What kind of feedback have you gotten from patrons/constituents?
Ty: We did a survey for the first round and got some data. It was kind of a test run and we did want feedback. Most of the complaints we got were questions about the filters. How do I get these filters off? They thought, since we’ve given them this device it’s a transfer of ownership. They wanted to know why they had filters. We had to explain it was a requirement for eligibility. The filters were guidelines from CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) and could not be removed. Any federal money requires those filters to be on the computers to keep kids safe while on the internet.
The good feedback was overwhelmingly about getting jobs through connectivity. We changed lives with this program. People used those actual words on the survey.
We actually brought someone on to our outreach team because of this. There was a woman that had come here from a nation that didn’t shut down during the pandemic. But while she was here, she couldn’t travel back home and, as a result, she lost her job in her home country. She got her new job by using a hotspot and Chromebook and is now working for the library. She found the job through LinkedIn.
LDO: Do you do any marketing/outreach to let patrons know you have these hotspots?
Ty: We put information on the website. We posted on social media, all the normal comms channels. But word of mouth is like rocket fuel. That’s what really did it. But it is a double-edged sword. We got devices into people’s hands but created a big rush in that first round. It was chaotic. It wasn’t something we were prepared for. Word of mouth is just a force of nature.
“Libraries are not just an information store, we’re an information facilitator” – Ty Beauchamp
LDO: What did you learn from the program?
Ty: This program helped bring the mission into focus through a modern 21st century lens. We’ve always had computers and internet and digital literacy training at libraries but, up until now, we see ourselves as open to the public, people come to us. We don’t have sophisticated methods of distribution because we haven’t needed it. Now we have sounded the depths of the public need. This has been a proof of concept to figure out what our constituents need from us. It brought about total re-envisioning or our mission, going out into the community, rather than waiting for them to come to us. We have been doing more outreach activities. Libraries are not just an information store, we’re an information facilitator.
Once the data plans for the hotspots ran out, it ended, they just bricked. It hurt me to watch that happen. I searched for months to find funding to continue it. That was a big takeaway, these programs need to be sustainable. Our constituents need this. Every day they have that hotspot, they have a connection to opportunity. I do think the changes to E-rate with their hotspot lending is a good sign. We just have to figure out ways to put the technological power into the hands of the community.
Our goal is to dream big and take down the barriers and continue to be guiding lights.
LDO: How did digital literacy fit into the program?
Ty: We’ve always had connectivity for those devices and staff to help them learn how to use them. For the digital literacy aspect, we had gotten a grant from TSLAC to fund salaries for a team of digital navigators, so we had TSLAC money for the digital literacy and we had ECF money for devices and connectivity. But the TSLAC money came in a year before. By the time the devices finally arrived, the digital navigators had moved on.
So, we hit the ground running but had a big strain on the staff to do the digital literacy skills training because we had no more navigators at the time.
We’re a library, people come in and get what they need. Without guardrails, the train can go off the cliff. When you don’t have digital navigators for that support the staff gets taxed. It was a hard lesson, coordinating money from different grants, trying to make sure digital equity was being met.
LDO: What other lessons have you learned from running this program?
Ty: We had some turnover over the course of the program. I took it over for the second round. I saw, just from going through it, what we could do better. I got the other directors involved. We did a listening tour at all 26 branches. It immediately paid off. They wanted knowledge about how we handled the second round of the program.
We created a training session so people would leave with a device knowing how to use it. If we scheduled these training sessions, then the distribution time would also be set. It was just more organized. We didn’t have capacity for a team of digital navigators, so we did a training video. We also put an age requirement on it. You had to at least be in kindergarten to check out the hotspots. Round two went much smoother. No lines out the door. Less chaos.
Demand for internet accessibility is growing and, fortunately, there are government programs expanding to meet this need. The FCC has a new hotspot program on the horizon as efforts to close the digital divide are starting to take hold.
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