RUNNING HEAD: Urban Poverty and the Internet: Libraries, Information needs, technology and local

policy

Sharon Strover, University of Texas at Austin

Email: sharon.strover@austin.utexas.edu

Abstract

Urban populations in the U.S. have high concentrations of poverty even as many major cities

register greater wealth growth over the past several years. While poverty rates in urban areas dropped

from 2015 to 2016, some metro areas still register high levels of poverty, a rate of 13% in New York, for

example (Brookings, 2018; Bishaw and Kirby, 2016). With pressures to move into better paying jobs and

better housing and to find resources to make the most of economic, health and educational

opportunities, people’s abilities to access and work with information - particularly online information -

become more important in these environments. For these reasons, several cities including Austin,

Seattle, Minneapolis, New York and Chicago have launched their own digital inclusion programs to

target digital literacy and digital access problems which occur frequently among lower income

populations. Libraries are frequent core components of those plans.

Libraries’ adaptation to the electronic information setting prompt this examination of one major

case: the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) recent project for loaning hotspots. We briefly review the

rise of library interest in loaning hotspots, and then present empirical detail on a hotspot lending

program in New York City, arguably the largest hotspot loan program in the world with its 10,000 mobile

devices. We examine hotspots in terms of libraries’ new roles as digital inclusion institutions and in

terms of users’ attitudes and behaviors. Qualitative and quantitative data from librarians, hotspot users

and non-users reveal some of the ways such programs speak to Internet affordability and the conditions

structuring Internet use among the patron population. These results bear certain implications for

libraries and cities might think about their digital inclusion agendas.

The major institutions that Americans rely on for improving their skills and opportunities include

schools and other informal learning settings such as targeted clubs or programs. We single out libraries

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as one highly relevant site for urban populations seeking improved information resources. Libraries

have historically positioned themselves as pillars of information and inclusion in American society. Free,

available to all, with materials in multiple languages and formats, libraries are possibly the most

inclusive public institution in the country. They are a lightning rod for sharing information resources

with all comers. Moreover, most cities fund public libraries, and have identified them as crucial elements

within their digital inclusion plans. That said, as more materials migrate to the Internet, and as

preferences for how one accesses information and culture change, libraries are challenged to also

incorporate both the Internet and new information-seeking behaviors into their operations and

philosophy, and to effectively reach the people who might like to use their assets.

To examine libraries’ roles in expanding Internet access, this paper examines how lower income

patrons used loaned hotspots. No longer simply checking out books and providing reading tables,

libraries have steadily moved into loaning audio and video items, providing computers and internal wifi,

ebooks, and now hotspots. The implications of library efforts toward digital inclusion can be bedrock

elements of city plans to address digital divides and digital literacy, and the results of hotspot lending

programs reflect on how cities and other governmental levels might frame digital inclusion projects in

the future.

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3141874

RUNNING HEAD: Urban Poverty and the Internet: Libraries, Information needs, technology and local
policy

Introduction

Across many decades in the U.S., free public education and free public libraries have been the

bedrock of democratic concepts regarding how citizenship and opportunity are cultivated. Even with

their warts and missteps, both institutions are widely hailed as enhancing individual social mobility and

offering the chance to improve one’s circumstances in contemporary or some future society. Libraries in

particular are singled out for their unique roles in broadening access to a range of materials and

information and encouraging all people to use their resources. Generally lacking citizenship, gender,

age, race and ethnicity barriers to entry, libraries have been among the most transparent and

welcoming of American civic institutions.1 They continue to command public confidence and respect

even in an era when many public or government functions have lost them (Pew, 2013; OCLC, 2018).

We examine the brief history of U.S. public libraries as they became important institutional sites

for Internet access and digital inclusion efforts nationally, focusing specifically on the loaning of mobile

hotspots to patrons who lack home Internet access. The concept of digital inclusion derives from ideas

about social equity and justice, and in part reflects a long-standing recognition that information or

knowledge “gaps” exacerbate social inequality. The institution of libraries is based on remedying those

inequalities. The onset of digital resources and the rapid growth of Internet-based services and

applications throws new attention on how libraries grapple with information resources and patrons’

needs in the context of their broader inclusion mandate. Urban settings with significant numbers of low

income populations challenge libraries’ abilities to provide such resources - including Internet access -

that many believe is essential for social equality. As more materials migrate to the Internet, and as

1
Knott (2015) amply documents ways that libraries joined other civic institutions in racist and exclusionary
practices. She usefully details the system of racism in the Jim Crow South that systematically excluded the Black
population from public libraries, giving lie to the idea that libraries have always been above racism.

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
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preferences for how one accesses information and culture change, libraries are challenged to

incorporate both the Internet and new user information-seeking behaviors into their operations and

philosophy.

Libraries have a lengthy history of embracing public services that go beyond simply providing

information, perhaps because the public itself has had a role in influencing what the library meant. As

so-called “third places” - outside of home and work – libraries embody social values of tolerance and

equality, and operate as a sort of civic meeting ground (Oldenburg, 1989). Operating outside the

marketplace and outside of government, and mobilizing public dialogue and discussion in unique, non-

threatening ways, libraries effectively embody processes of developing social capital in the classic

Habermasian public sphere.

However, adopting new roles and with them, new technologies, however, has not been and still

is not smooth for all public libraries. Even now, tremendous disparities exist across libraries in terms of

not just how they see their communities but also in terms of how they choose priorities, access

resources, and deliver services, and in turn how broader government policies provide resources for

them. Alongside libraries’ own development, how cities address access to digital technology and

building skills among either unconnected or less-connected populations has become more pressing;

poliymakers see more job opportunities available in technology-related or information-related

occupations that assume familiarity with the Internet. As well, many basic services related to health and

education and basic services have migrated to Internet-based platforms. This means that routine and

easy access to the Internet as well as the ability to maneuver in its space are essential. Recognizing that

many lower income populations in cities are challenged by matters of digital and Internet literacy, the

cost of access to quality connections, and new methods of participating in civic life using mobile and

hybrid technologies and services, cities look to libraries as one vehicle to help local populations to

achieve meaningful broadband adoption.

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Our research examines one type of program that has expanded tremendously during 2015-2018,

that of mobile hotspot lending enabling people to access the Internet at home or elsewhere at any time.

Libraries’ very public role as locations for default free and available Internet access in both rural and

urban communities makes them not just anchor institutions but also active participants in grappling with

digital inclusion practices. We examine some of the steps libraries have taken since the early 1990s

toward becoming community centers for Internet access, and answer questions regarding how library

patrons use the mobile access provided via hotspots, how smartphone-dependence interacts with

Internet access and hotspots, and how hotspot programs may figure into broader digital inclusion

strategies for libraries in urban areas. Mobile hotspots represent new challenges for libraries’ roles in

creating community and digital inclusion in the face of Internet connectivity and digital literacy

challenges.

Libraries, Public Sphere and Inclusion

Libraries and the Public Sphere

Over the years as libraries served their communities, their interactions with actual patrons have

shaped many of their activities. Libraries’ efforts to incorporate digital materials, literacy training, and

to make Internet access a component of their institutional repertoire join a pattern seen over and over

with the arrival of various new communication and educational forms. In this, the library presents an

interesting case of how a public institution, with strong links to the state through funding and other

governance mechanisms, forges a role as a public space if not a public sphere.

The strong voice of cultural elites often penetrates the public perception of and ideas about

implementing new technologies or services of all sorts (Marvin, 1988), a point Weigand (2015) explores

in examining how libraries of the 19th century negotiated the wishes of cultural elites as balanced

against the wishes of library patrons. He writes:

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When the library profession organized in the late nineteenth century, however, dominant groups—
business, government, and cultural authorities who assumed responsibility for educating the next
generation—celebrated the “learned reading” they modeled and consistently trivialized as a “leisure”
activity the stories people wanted most, no matter their cultural form. As a result, librarians were
made uncomfortable about supplying the kinds of stories contained in commonplace reading that
less-powerful groups wanted. But to justify funding, library managers also had to monitor circulation
numbers as a measure of use and thus had to address the “leisure” needs of public library users.
Through demand alone, the latter forced public library funders and managers to accommodate their
cultural priorities. At some public libraries they were more successful than others. Over time
(especially in the twentieth century) librarians developed a willingness to serve (if not always to
endorse) the democracies of culture evident in multiple cultural tastes. Although they did this
without much fanfare or gratitude from cultural authorities, their professional services not only
enabled millions of users to construct multiple canons unique to their own cultures but also freed
them from the prescriptions of authorities whose own “knowledge” was hardly disinterested.
(Weigand, 2015, p. 356)

One does not think of libraries as the conversational or dialogue spaces that Habermas describes

as elemental to the emergence of the 17th to 20th century public spheres, but the values of rational

thought, exchanges of ideas, and participation by anyone (in theory) are qualities replicated in library

environments.2 To the extent that as civic institutions libraries occupy important roles in the lifeworld

space of citizens’ shared beliefs and culture, they become significant sites for communication alongside

media and the press, and thus support public spheres (Habermas, 1987, 357). Libraries’ roles in the

information lives of their patrons embodies what Widderscheim and Koizumi (2015, 8) call multiple

layers of public sphere functions, defined as facilitating citizen discourse, performing legitimation

processes, collecting and organizing discourse (as through collections and resource management), and

creating spaces and resources for citizens to express common concerns, to debate and to support

openness. Outreach, “virtual” communication using online media and other platforms comprise some of

those public sphere connections (Widderscheim and Koizumi (2015, 9).

Libraries’ public sphere qualities explain how they have adopted new missions and purposes over

time, obedient to what their users desire. Libraries evolved as profoundly local, with most now

obtaining about 85% of their funding from some form of local taxes (OCLC, 2018). Their ethos thus has

2
The idea of free participation in the Habermasian vision has been roundly critiqued. See Calhoun (1992).

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included developing collections and services that serve the special interests of locally important,

targeted populations such as business reference collections for businesspeople and geneology materials

for people seeking information about ancestors, but also in-library computers with Internet connections

for people who perhaps lack such resources at home and even ‘maker spaces’ to attract more

entrepreneurial and younger constituencies (Willett, 2016; Anderson, 2012).

Just as some literature references libraries’ efforts to “Americanize” immigrants in the early 20th

century (Bausman, 2016), and contemporary researchers note urban libraries’ emphasis on serving

disadvantaged populations (DiTomaso, 2012), so too research literature suggests tight relationships

between libraries’ providing digital resources and the needs of users thoroughly embedded in digital

lives (Kranich, 2013; Buschman, 2013).

The trends of libraries’ involvement in digital resources and Internet access specifically in the

1990s and into the 21st century bear special scrutiny, particularly the library’s commitment to providing

access to computers and in-library connections. Some scholars locate libraries’ interest in electronic

resources as part of a broader tradition of “outreach” that developed in the late 1960s. As outreach

evolved, it became in part a way of sending the libraries’ digital resources home with users so that they

could engage patrons in their own homes. Circulating music or movie DVDs for example falls into this

category, and such materials now are treated much like books in terms of library holdings. As libraries

increased their informal learning programs, they continued to authorize investment in technologies, but

profound ambivalences accompany them. Even as communications scholar Henry Jenkins and educator

James Paul Gee have popularized the ideas of participatory culture and sharing enabled by low cost

computers and the Internet, the investments in capabilities, expertise and identity that these resources

represent for libraries is not unproblematic. The arrival of the Internet in libraries epitomizes dilemmas

that intersect and complicate the library’s public sphere functions.

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Digital divides and digital inclusion

The Internet was rapidly adopted in American homes in the 1990s, engendering keen interest

among policymakers in who might be left behind with this new technology that seemed to convey

privilege to its users. For example, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration,

the federal program within the Department of Commerce tasked with technology-related planning for

the government, undertook a series of surveys beginning in 1995 to investigate who was “falling behind”

the digital revolution in order to signal possible policy actions for remediation (NTIA, 1995). The idea of

falling behind became synonymous with the earliest definitions of the digital divide.

A logical site for tackling the problem of “falling behind” would be public institutions such as

schools and libraries as places where public investment already existed. Indeed, the U.S. 1996

Telecommunications Act crafted a subsidy program to facilitate Internet connections for schools and

libraries (e-rate) as an easy concession to a conception of universal service that embodied the

philosophy of extensive and equitable access to communication resources (1996 Telecommunications

Act, Section 254). With universal service officially written into the 1996 Telecommunications Act,

libraries joined the policy discourse around “advanced telecommunications capabilities,” the legislative

phrase for broadband.

With changes in a U.S. political environment that seesaws between positions that advocate more

or less government involvement in solving social and economic problems, it was perhaps predictable

that the idea of “falling behind” would be unpalatable when the Administration became Republican

under President Bush in 2000. The Bush Administration and subsequent federal efforts emphasized the

success of marketplace solutions to what they called “digital inclusion,” characterizing the digital divide

as “solved“ (Strover, 2014; NTIA 2002). That phrase also captured new approaches that acknowledged

the dimension of digital inclusion beyond simple access: how people were accessing digital tools and

the purposes behind such use achieved new significance. Research demonstrated that not everyone

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needed or wanted to learn Microsoft productivity tools; other social, recreational, and practical skills

were valued more by some people (Van Dyck2003; Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008; Gangadharan and

Byrum, 2012). Notions of digital literacy and Internet literacy became more prominent concerns in the

first two decades of this century, underscoring the need for critical evaluation of information found on

the Internet, the ability to manage online privacy, and the skill to navigate meaningful applications.

Over that same period of time, new technological developments around smartphones and

platforms also changed the landscape of connectivity. Mobile access and use via a phone or tablet,

generally cheaper than a home-based fixed broadband connection, grew tremendously from 2010;

lower income populations’ dependence on smartphone Internet access prompted declines in fixed

household-based access (Pew, 2018). According to statistics from Pew Research Center, 76% of

Americans own a smartphone, and one-in-five smartphone owners use them as their only Internet

device. The highest concentration of smartphone-only Internet individuals is among the population

making less than $30,000/year (Pew, 2018). This implies that mobile access to information via

smartphones has become an accepted and dominant information-seeking mode that may affect how

libraries consider digital inclusion efforts.

For libraries, establishing Internet connectivity within the walls of libraries ramped up quickly:

Bertot et al. report that from 1994 to 2008 public library Internet connectivity went from 20.9% to

99.1% (Bertot et al., 2009a), alongside the arrival of more and more in-library computers. The authors

refer to strong community demand to explain this rapid addition of connectivity and Internet-based

resources and service training. They cite the results of annual surveys conducted across 1994 through

2012 (sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) that document how public Internet

access rose in libraries across the nation.3 In 2008 they reported: “The role of Internet access provider

3
See Stevenson (2010) for a critical interpretation of the Gates Foundation’s initiatives to improve libraries’
Internet connectivity and computing powers.

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for the community is ingrained in the social perceptions of public libraries, and public Internet access

has become a central part of community perceptions about libraries and the value of the library

profession” (Bertot et al., 2008 p. 286). Libraries’ own internal use of digital resources, their desire to

serve communities’ Internet-related needs, and their involvement in various policy initiatives - as grant

recipients for “public computer centers” for example or as e-rate benefactors for improved connectivity

or as city-designated partners in local digital inclusion efforts - all plunge libraries into core positions for

facilitating Internet access and training.4 By the beginning of 2010, prominent library scholars agreed

that “the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and accompanying services and technologies now makes

equal access to and participation in the online environment a necessity for education, employment,

finance, and civic engagement” (Jaeger et al., 2012, 3). According to the American Library Association

(ALA), as of 2015 most U.S. public libraries offer free public wifi access (ALA, nd), and library programs

have been lauded in digital inclusion public policy initiatives that generally assume libraries are doing

this job well.5 Many cities likewise designated libraries as crucial partners in inclusion programs.

From the users’ perspective, libraries’ roles necessarily also intersect matters of affordability,

convenience, and assistance. It is doubtless true that libraries represented the only free Internet access

point in many communities in the 1990s and certainly in the first decade of the 2000s as well, before

wifi spots became more common in commercial spots such as Starbucks or in noncommercial places.

About 70% of U.S. libraries responding to an annual, national survey indicated they were the only free

4
One Department of Commerce Broadband Technologies Opportunity Program (2009-2013) grant
category was “public computing centers,” and numerous libraries successfully applied for those grants
from the $284 million fund.
5
The State of Texas library system commissioned a study to examine the “business case” for its services,
concluding in 2016 that its wifi services were worth more than $104 million annually and its computers
with Internet connectivity were valued at close to $300 million (Texas State Library and Archives
Commission, 2016).

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
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public Internet access site in their community (Bertot et al., 2009b). In tandem with affordability

concerns, researchers have found that lower income populations also have demonstrated lower levels

of Internet skills, making the assistance available in libraries germane (LaRose, Gregg, Strover and

Straubhaar, 2007). The idea that libraries are critical community anchor institutions for broadband

access, which in turn can convey job-related, educational, health and other services, became accepted

wisdom then and continues to hold sway throughout the second decade of the century.6 For urban

environments in particular, where simple broadband availability is rarely an issue, the libraries’ offer of

free and (usually) high speed connectivity has been popular: a 2018 nationally representative sample

indicates that 44% used a public library’s wi-fi within the past 12 months, and 65% rate providing free

access to computers and the Internet of “high importance” (OCLC, 2018). Such results highlight the

reality of general urban access which is complicated by affordability and digital capabilities matters,

issues especially affected the poor and less educated. Users’ skills and expectations of the Internet

connectivity and assistance in libraries then raises questions regarding how a mobile platform is used

outside of the library.

Finally, from a policy perspective, the dwindling percentage of the population lacking broadband

access combined with the rise of mobile phone-based Internet access has allowed the national regulator

to espouse the 2018 position that “in the United States the deployment of broadband to all Americans is

reasonable and timely” (Rosenworcel, 2018). However, that position is stubbornly incognizant of

affordability matters and the growing evidence of digital literacy needs. As of the end of 2016, 24

million Americans still lacked fixed broadband access, and although the majority (19 million) live in rural

areas, many do not. Using New York City as an example, access is a problem for at least 30% of New

Yorkers, and the Mayor in that city established the goal of high speed broadband access for all citizens

6
An online controversy erupted when an article in Forbes magazine suggested that libraries were outmoded
because Amazon replaced libraries! Forbes deleted the article (Weissman, 7/23/2018).

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by 2025 (City of New York, 2018, 108). Approximately 22% of New York households do not have home-

based Internet, a statistic rising to 36% for households below the poverty line. A 2018 Report from the

City notes that high-speed connections are priced out of both commercial reach in many neighborhoods,

and that many New Yorkers simply cannot afford Verizon’s high-speed local service (City of New York,

2018, 108). The situation has prompted that City to try to invest in alternatives for low-income

communities and to release a Call for Innovations to target underserved customers.

This environment sets the stage for our empirical analysis of NYPL’s hotspot lending program.

Mobile hotspot lending programs represent one of the newest digital inclusion efforts in libraries.

However, such programs – often tentative and facing funding problems - highlight some of the

difficulties libraries face in their expanding digital role, and few have provided data on the actual users

of the hotspots. We examine data on NYPL’s effort with a large hotspot lending program to investigate

how this latest digital presence meets civic and library goals of digital inclusion. Such programs raise

additional questions about the multiple role of libraries as community anchors facilitating digital

inclusion, as Internet access sites, as informal learning spaces associated with improving education and

job opportunities, and as a public sphere.

Mobile Access: Library Hotspot programs

Numerous libraries in the U.S. have instituted hotspot lending programs as ways to enhance

Internet access. Libraries in St. Paul, Houston, Albuquerque, Chicago, Kansas City, Seattle, Minneapolis

and Bellingham, Massachusetts and several others have experimented with providing their users with

hotspots.7 The hotspots are loaned for specified periods of time (often just a week or two); they use cell

phone networks to provide mobile connectivity, and the hotspot itself is capable of supporting several

7
Non-profit Mobile Beacon, a hotspot and connectivity broker working with many hotspot lending
programs, cites possible benefits associated with these programs, including providing opportunities for
children to do homework at home using the Internet and thus reducing the “homework gap;” searching
for job opportunities; staying in touch with distant family; and facilitating seniors as they search for
health information

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devices (such as desktop computers, tablets, or mobile phones). These programs essentially move

Internet connectivity beyond the library and provide subsidized access to the Internet from anywhere

on the cellular network with which the library has contracted.

The NYPL thought of the hotspot program specifically as a way to combat the dearth of

affordable Internet connectivity in the city, and in the publicity associated with their loan program they

made specific reference to desirable outcomes of 24/7 access with respect to applying for jobs and

continuing education. In particular, they hoped to redress the penalties K-12 schoolchildren living in

non-broadband households face when they receive homework that must be completed online – the

phenomenon referred to as the homework gap. Indeed, the hotspot program, funded by several

foundations, was in part prompted by the Mayor’s recognition that the City needed to do more to

remedy the roughly one third of the local population lacked home broadband access (DeBlasio

Administration, 2015).

Matters of affordability, normal, market-based Internet access conditions, libraries’ roles as

digital inclusion sites, poverty and financial precarity, and much broader social and economic shifts

toward the presumption of Internet access are all implicated in mobile hotspot programs. Most libraries

report that hotspot lending programs are popular, so popular in fact that long waiting list for the devices

may be common (Peterson, 2017).

The NYPL Program and Research Methods

The NYPL program loaned 10,000 hotspot devices tied to the Sprint cellular network, and

targeted people with no home broadband service. In an unusual move, the NYPL and Brooklyn Public

Library (BPL) offered a full year loan period. (Most libraries seem to offer hotspots for just one or two

weeks.) The third system in the region, Queens Library, loaned devices only for one month, a more

common time period around the country. The program supported a 3G or 4G connection with a 6G data

plan, after which service would slow down. Our qualitative and quantitative data-gathering spanned

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nearly the entire the duration of the program and extended a few months beyond the return of the

hotspots. We gathered data from librarians, people who checked out the hotspots, and people who

were eligible for the devices but did not check them out (nonusers) in order to investigate the outcomes

of this program.

Our data sources included: (1) six focus groups with users averaging about ten participants each,

(2) 15 one-on-one interviews with librarians, and (3) a self-administered questionnaire (completed

either online or on paper, in English or Spanish or Chinese) that hotspot users completed when they

returned their hotspots, and (4) a last questionnaire sent to hotspot users approximately three months

after the last hotspots were returned in order to gain insights into how these recent hotspot users

adjusted to not having these devices. The response rates for the self-administered, post-program

questionnaires were 31% (N=1451) for NYPL and 18% (N=516) for Brooklyn. We also had access to a

pre-survey that BPL administered (N=2423). Because the NYPL and Brooklyn system programs were

similar in their loan period and program focus and both loaned the devices to people who said they had

no home broadband, we report some findings from those two programs here, particularly focusing on

the post-program surveys. (Results from the Queens program are reported elsewhere.)

In this paper, we select elements of our findings that bear on three broad questions bearing on

libraries’ digital inclusion and public sphere roles:

1. For what purposes did patrons use the hotspots? In what ways were the mobile qualities of

these devices relevant for information seeking?

How hotspots might have extended what people already did in the library, and ways they might have

introduced entirely new capabilities into users’ patterns of seeking information and services are

germane. We measured people’s use of the hotspots in terms of frequency and duration, and also

which devices they used with the hotspots, including mobile devices.

2. To what extent are hotspot programs helpful for digital inclusion?

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We measured the extent to which the NYPL and BPL programs fostered improved digital capabilities,

how they reached constituencies that most need improved digital access and assistance, and the

responses to newfound access from among the users. Items examining the user population include

demographics as well as a range of self-rated digital capabilities, with special attention to older

populations and the under- and unemployed. Capabilities assessment derive from several scales used in

the literature on digital literacy. We also use focus group data to probe the social dimensions of access

for the hotspot users.

3. What are the implications of the program for broader digital inclusion policies within urban

environments?

How might hotspot programs reflect on the public sphere qualities of public libraries? How do

populations that might ordinarily experience difficulties with Internet access and skills use hotspots?

And finally, how are such programs viable responses to problems of affordability and skills acquisition?

Results

In general, having the free hotspots was widely appreciated among the users: they report program

satisfaction ratings of 8.5 on a scale of one (low) to ten (high). However, some of the outcomes may be

counterintuitive and reflect on how users think about Internet access and the library and the broader

information ecosystem.

a. Purposes for using hotspots - some contradictions

Hotspot programs embody some contradictions in the library’s role as a convening place. When

examining the purposes behind using hotspots, we found a range of utilities, many of them playing off of

the hotspots’ mobile qualities. Some of them led to fewer actual library visits.

First, we learned from our focus groups, librarian interviews and surveys that the librarians were

critical “publicists” of the hotspot programs. In general, librarians indicated they knew who routinely

came into the library and used computers, and they successfully targeted those individuals with

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information about the hotspot program. There was a great deal of in-library publicity about the hotspot

program through flyers and the lending events. Additionally a large “kick off” event at one library in the

Bronx garnered press coverage. However, librarians themselves were critical to a word-of-mouth

awareness of the program, and the place-based library users became logical hotspot users.

Second, many of the hotspot users were devoted library users (Figure 1). The library does

provide a community, a safe place where people feel comfortable and often use computers and Internet

connections; however, having a hotspot actually diminishes the time that people spend in the library.

Brooklyn’s pre-survey indicated 48% of the hotspot users routinely came to the library to use its

computers and 41% indicated they visited the library to use its wifi with their own devices.8 About 66%

of them reported coming to the library weekly (42%) or daily (24%). The NYPL statistics are similar: 48%

said they visit the library to use its computers, and the same percentage said they visit the library

“frequently.”

Some hotspot users explicitly valued the sense of community they found in the library space.

Hotspots were useful, but for some, the community presence at the library still drove them to come to

the physical place. One person of Chinese descent shared why he traveled an hour to get to a library in

Chinatown when he had a beautiful library just five minutes from his home:

The library in Brooklyn is not far from my house – it is like a 5-minute walk. It is huge and
beautiful with wonderful facilities. However, it is not that connected with Chinese
community.

….It is a community with diverse races and ethnicities. [It] used to be multilingual, and there
was a lot of books in Chinese as well. But less and less Chinese books were there, and I don’t
know why. These was also used to have a gathering every year during Spring Festival. I think
probably Chinese still prefer to hang out with Chinese – although this library [in Chinatown] is
not big, its service is fantastic, especially the staff here is really responsible. Thus I would
rather come here. I used to get online in the library in Brooklyn, but when I had any trouble
with the computer – and my English is not good – nobody there could help me. Now there are

8
Brooklyn surveyed nearly all of its users when they checked out the hotspot. The sample of 2423 responded to
numerous items about library services and using electronic resources.

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
15

less and less Chinese, and even the staff are not able to read Chinese. Even though its
facilities are wonderful, I would rather choose here – which is much further away.

While some commercial sites such as coffee shops were referenced, the library, followed by

one’s own smartphone – were by far the most frequently cited methods for connecting to the Internet.

That figure should not, however, suggest that everyone was entirely pleased with all aspects of library-

based access; people complained about the 50-minute time limit on computer access in the system, the

unsuitability of the physical space for certain kinds of work, and sometimes the discomfort they felt

being around other (especially younger) people using the computers.

Most people used the hotspots at home, and sometimes at work (Figure 2). Indeed, we

discovered in our focus groups that many people did not realize they could use the hotspots anywhere,

and assumed that they were home devices that should be stationary. Perhaps it is not surprising then

that having a hotspot actually resulted in people spending less time going to the library (Figure 3).

Indeed 45% of the sample reported using the hotspots three or more hours per day, and most of that

presumably would be at home. While before having a hotspot, going to the library and simply using a

data plan associated with one’s phone (or even using the phone in a wifi area) constituted the major

methods of accessing the Internet, once people had the hotspot, they tapered off those access methods

and instead used hotspots, generally at home. The implications for visiting the library seem apparent.

Did not access the Internet regularly…

Locations and methods for
Internet access before HS

School
Work
Store with free access
Public place such as a community center
Friend's home
Phone
Library

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage

Figure 1 Locations and methods for accessing the Internet before having hotspot (N=1047)

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
16

Other
Locaition for using HS

Public Place

Traveling

Work

Home

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage

Figure 2 Locations for using the hotspot

Checking on School-related Information for…

Social Media
App Use
Gaming
Emailing
Learning new Things
Staying in Touch with Family and Friends
Traveling Somewhere to Get Information
Activity

Working Online with a Child

Finding City Information
Job Searching
Coming into the Library
Completing Schoolwork or Training
Watching Videos Online
Finding Local Information
Reading Print Materials
Using my phone
Seeking Health Information
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Percentage
Less time Same Amount of Time More time

Figure 3 More or less time on activities (N=1071)

Digital inclusion: Different needs, different uses

There are strong, under-recognized utilities of the hotspot for different population subgroups. For

example, older populations especially found hotspots saved travel time and spared them from transit

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
17

difficulties in an urban area. The hotspot program was targeting families with children in its publicity

and in library management’s stated aims; NYPL publicized it heavily in after-school classes to insure

parents knew about it.9

In broad strokes the BPL and NYPL programs reached:

 Lower income individuals;

 African American and Hispanic populations (67% total);

 People without children in the household (55%);

 A somewhat older sample, with the median age of 50;

 People with at least a high school degree;

 A mix of the fully employed, people seeking work or more work, and retired people.

The people participating in NYPL and BPL programs were overwhelmingly in lower income

categories (66% reporting annual incomes of under $25,000), suggesting the program reached its

targeted user group. However, they were not primarily families with children. Rather, hotspot users

were somewhat older than anticipated (median age = 50, N=898), and the percentages of users without

children was higher than those with children.

Table 1 illustrates that most NYPL and BPL users did not have children in the house; Hispanic/Latino

and African American users were the likeliest to have a child in the home. In general, the hotspot

population could be characterized as one third over the age of 55 and mostly retired, one third under 55

and working full time, and another third employed part-time or looking for work, or some combination

of the two. Different types of online activities characterize these groups. That over half of the hotspot

users were somewhat older people and people without children in the home was unexpected.

However, the population reflects a core utility that this age group found in the hotspots: not having to

9
After hotspots were returned at the close of the program described here, they were re-purposed in a ConnectEd
program by the library and available only to families with children in public school.

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
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travel, as illustrated in Figure 3. This was one of most highly cited responses for how people spent their

time after having the hotspot.

Table 1 Race/ethnicity by children (NYPL and BPL)

African- East Asian White Hispanic/ Mixed/Other Total

Children American/Black Latino Sample

None 55.6% 70.3% 83.8% 45.9% 52.4% 55.4%

One 18.8% 20.9% 8.8% 22.4% 21.5% 19.6%

Two or more 25.6% 8.8% 7.4% 31.7% 26.0% 24.9%

Total* 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

*totals approximate 100% with rounding

Spending less time traveling was a boon to disabled people in the sample, a point made in our focus

groupos. Looking up city and local information - also frequent activities with the hotspots - likewise

saved travel and time, especially desirable for people less able to endure the rigors of bad weather and

public transit.

We found that families with children used hotspots more often to help with school, and jobless

or underemployed people used them to assist with job applications and searching for work. Older

people outpace younger people in using hotspot connectivity for getting directions, connecting with

friends and family, searching for health information, and reading news (see Figure 4). In this there are

hints of the sociality that services on the Internet can provide and the ways that hotspots offset some of

the isolation that often plagues older people. Our more general point is that hotspots were used to

fulfill needs important to different groups of users, and those needs varied by life circumstances.

What very few people mentioned in focus groups or on questionnaires, however, was how

hotspots enabled them to better explore the library’s own electronic resources. Rather, the continuous

connectivity and therefore the prospect of engaging resources for longer periods enabled outcomes that

were different from what might be achieved by using in-library computers. Completing an online

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
19

course, satisfying certification requirements, crafting items to sell in a virtual world environment,

supplying contact information to potential employers and using the hotspot with a feature phone and a

google service in order to bypass costs of conventional phone service with a data plan, were among

some of these uses. The mobile quality of the device afforded connectivity and responsiveness for

people providing in-home care or contract labor at various locations. In other words, hotspot

connectivity was profoundly different from in-library Internet connectivity for many users.

Get directions (e.g. Google Maps)

Connect with friends or family (Skype)

Help a child with his/her schoolwork

Get banking or financial information

Get information about health

Watch something entertaining

Check out a product or service before buying

Read news and current events

Complete work for my current job

Learn job---related skills (such as certification)

Find or apply for a new job

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Non-Retired Persons Retired Persons

Figure 4 Activities with the hotspot - retired versus non-retired hotspot users (N=2103)

How does library-provided Internet access interact reflect on the broader environment of

commercially-provided Internet “solutions?” How does it reflect on those other library values of place

and “learning useful information” as Wiegand put it? On these points our data suggest two conclusions:

first, that hotspot users valued library personnel for handling questions about the hotspots. Perhaps

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
20

even more important, however, is the library-provided Internet access provided a service that the users

indicated they simply could not afford at prevailing commercial rates.

Digital Inclusion Potentials: Internet affordability and the library role

In NYPL and BPL, the hotspot program deliberately sought to extend Internet access to people

who could not afford to have it at home. Hotspot patrons were already experienced Internet users, and

while library-loaned hotspots appeared to enrich their capabilities, a major motivation for using them

reflects on the unaffordability of conventional Internet access. We find that the people who

participated in the program were not Internet naifs: as Figure 1 shows, they frequently used library-

based Internet connections, and they generally had Internet-ready devices such as laptops (52%) or

smartphones – and 63% had data plans. Many were schooled in avoiding the extra costs associated with

running over one’s data limit on a phone plan, and understood how the hotspot could be useful for

either replacing or augmenting an existing smartphone whether or not it had a data plan. Indeed,

according to our focus group results, many already used in-library wifi for downloads and uploads in

order to spare their data plans.

When we asked people if they would pay for a home broadband service at prices points of $10

or $30 or $50/month, the overwhelming sentiment in both surveys and among our focus group

members regarding commercial Internet was that it was simply unaffordable for them at the market

rate of $50/month. Results indicate clear interest in having home broadband, but facing the actual costs

may be another matter. Indeed, 41% of the sample reported having had home Internet service at some

point in the previous three years (N=941), but having to drop it for monetary reasons. This sentiment

from one focus group participant captures the dilemma:

I think the [mobile phone] programs have gotten a little more competitive now and you
pay this money and you get a very small amount of data and I didn't realize that when
you buy a samsung there's all this stuff that they load on there that like used up the data
and it was just gone within like, three days, and I went, god, what's going on?! So I didn't
understand that they were preliminary programs that they were just loading... if I went
to the library, it made me understand a little bit more about the ...costs and programs to

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
21

look like that's a good way to get that information on someone else's dime so that now if
I went to the market I would have a better idea what I need and, and, uh, what it could
deal with and how much data I need. It's horrible... to slog through that and get that
data gone and then think to yourself, well that was a big waste of my money.

Another probe on discretionary purchases found that 70% of the sample paid for a phone with

or without a data plan; this was one of their most important routine expenditures. Such results

underscore that being “connected” is very important for this population, but the price of that

connection also is highly pertinent and simply unobtainable at conventional price points. A cell phone

plan, probably with limited data, was possible, but costs beyond that were unsustainable. Notions of

“cord cutters” are probably irrelevant in this case inasmuch as the always-on Internet connectivity that

phrase implies is out of reach for most of this sample. Rather, the data underscore how financial

precarity intersects the need for some regular Internet access and use, yielding a picture of frustration

and challenge for this population. For the people enrolled in this program, there is a complicated cost

calculus between phone-based data plans, coming to the library for free Internet access, and subscribing

to a home-based fixed service such as with a cable company. Stories of “sticker shock” were common in

our conversations with hotspot users. Beyond that, the results suggest a phenomenon we label

“KOMO”: knowledge of Missing Out. It is not that this population is afraid of missing out – FOMO;

rather, they know that without regular Internet access they in fact are missing out on many

opportunities, chances to hear from friends and family, job and educational opportunities, and a range

of helpful or fulfilling communication services.

We bring up this factor because Internet access is managed in the U.S. as a wholly private good

except for the handful of public places that support wifi.10 Libraries’ internal computers and

connectivity options already are a draw for users. Hotspot programs obviously can augment

10
We do not include wifi at commercial sites in this category simply because there is an expectation that one
purchase something or be exposed to advertising in those locations.

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
22

connectivity and enable new types of outcomes. However, what makes a library something more than

an Internet Service Provider (an ISP)? Does digitization and the Internet mean anything more for what a

library does and can be for its community?

Discussion

We raise these aspects of the results from investigating NYPL and BPL’s hotspot programs

because they bear on how a library might function as a community anchor and as a linchpin in an urban

digital inclusion program, as well as and how its affordances reflect on libraries’ larger public sphere

role. Our data suggest the strong community presence patrons experience in libraries, and the affinity

patrons have for each other and for librarians. Hotspot users in this program were regular library-goers

using computers and the Internet, as well as other services including checking out books. Hotspot

programs actually take people away from the library. We observed no effort to link hotspots to

opportunities to access library resources, although clearly that could be the case. Obviously helpful and

desirable outcomes occur for users when they have hotspot connectivity at their disposal in terms of

time and place. The program participants were very grateful for having these devices, for the time

savings and especially for the opportunity “to feel like everyone else,” a feeling that we labelled digital

dignity in other work.

However, as Internet demands in our social and economic worlds increase, so too will

expectations for better connectivity and services through libraries, whether it is inside the library walls

or outside through programs such as hotspot lending. Although national policy provides some support

mechanisms through e-rate to assist libraries in their physical connections to the Internet, the nation

lacks a program or policy that acknowledges the ways that libraries have stepped into that information

world. Their role as important enablers of public sphere functions seems ignored.

In the meantime, library costs increase alongside patrons’ expectations. Libraries’ significance

for digital inclusion efforts cannot be overstated. Indeed, the statistics regarding how many people use

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
23

library’s computers and Internet access and assistance are persuasive. However, when these

institutions are relegated to roles that supplement costly commercial Internet service or that carve out a

service model that only marginally meets demands, the model bears reexamination. Librariies’ digital

inclusion possibilities hinge on the type of Internet-related services – both access and assistance – they

can provide, and both require resources. In this sense, library hotspots may be another manifestation of

our national DNA that turns to technological solutions to social problems. In this case the hotspots

appear to be helpful band-aids that barely cover a deeper problem of equity. As an epilog, the NYPL

program evolution is illuminating: after this program of loaning hotspots with year-long check-out

periods, the Library initiated a different program available only to families with children in public school,

and offering only a 2G data plan. Most would agree that this is probably inadequate for many

educational purposes beyond simply uploading and perhaps downloading small files.

Can such programs be helpful components of city-level policies for improving connectivity?

Many cities have adopted training or access-related digital inclusion programs to redress what they see

as inequalities in skills and access within their lower income populations in order to catalyze improved

job and education prospects. The hotspot programs that libraries initiate may be helpful in targeted

ways, but they are highly dependent on data plans and the length of time the hotspot is loaned. NYPL

and BPL had what appears to be the longest loan period within any lending program in the country.

That said, facilitating the libraries’ abilities to serve digital inclusion goals puts these institutions

in the policy spotlight. The project here occurred only because it was supported by wealthy

foundations. Maintaining those services is costly and requires increasingly sophisticated IT expertise on

the part of library staff. With respect to the service itself, demands for bandwidth and access only

increase over time, and that means that hotspots too may be costlier as they offer more data at higher

speeds. Government bodies funding these services sometimes impose their own requirements on

content; the current requirement that any public library in the U.S. that receives federal funding such as

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
24

the e-rate connection subsidy must filter objectionable sites under the Children’s Internet Protection Act

(CIPA, 2000) is an example of why some policymakers may be reticent to support hotspot programs.

Even beyond that, some critics go further and object to computers and the Internet in libraries on the

basis that they deliver “entertainment,” notwithstanding that much of libraries’ circulated books, music

and movies certainly fall into that same category (e.g., Buschman, 2003; Tisdale, 1997).

On the micro-level of the actual library institution, there are contradictory opinions about what a

library “should” provide in terms of technology.11 On the one hand, there is an expectation that libraries

should remediate the digital divide by providing computers and Internet access; on the other hand,

some localities do not want to fund the perceived enjoyable and highly social applications such as

Facebook that many patrons want since such endeavors do not seem to be “reading” or “serious.”

Furthermore, the finding that long-term loans as in this program meant people spent less time in the

library may be disconcerting to some libraries. Nonetheless, we observe that some hotspot lending

programs in the U.S. deploy shorter time periods on hotspot loans in part because it encourages more

circulation and more library visits (personal conversation with Minneapolis representative, June, 2018).

This observation suggests that altering elements of hotspot programs may yield somewhat different

outcomes.

These findings may raise problems for libraries. For example, that the NYPL program attracted

relatively few families with children, and instead was heavily used by a much older constituency, is

unexpected. Eligibility standards force libraries to define their goals in what might be uncomfortable

ways: should they privilege lower income households? Only households that state they lack home

broadband? Should there be other criteria? To what extent would having any criteria at all violate an

11
The growth in computing power in the 1990s made it economically and technically possible to put
large collections online in order to make them more widely available. This sort of internal,
organizational pressure and priority doubtless contributed to the libraries’ decisions regarding digital
access and services. (See Arms, 2012, for example.)

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
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“equal service” ethos at a library? Are hotspots like books and other shareable resources, or do they

insert the library in the realm of market solutions to connectivity? Would library-loaned hotspots

persuade people to purchase their own hotspots? Mobile hotspots complicate the picture of what

libraries try to accomplish.

These questions remain for libraries and urban regions that are working to remediate the social

inequities that are at least in part traceable to poor information resources. Our results suggest that

hotspot programs may have important roles for the constituencies lacking reliable access and the

opportunity to spend more time learning the skills useful to navigating and exploiting the Internet. The

hotspot programs’ core contribution, however, alters how we might think about libraries’ role in

supporting and enabling lively public spheres. There may be an opportunity that conventional library

hotspot programs are missing in terms of cultivating better use of the libraries’ electronic resources.

Nonetheless, the very basic contribution that hotspots from the New York libraries made to the abilities

of lower income populations in the NYPL and BPL programs to maneuver social and economic programs,

to obtain information genuinely useful to them, and to ameliorate travel difficulties among older

populations, is undeniable.

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Urban Poverty and the Internet: Information needs, technology and local policy
26

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