Connecticut State Library, 8 Municipal Libraries Share $250,000 Grant for Regional Digital Navigator to Reach Underserved

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The Connecticut State Library’s Division of Library Development has been awarded an IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) National Leadership Grant for $249,948 to design and implement a replicable, regional digital navigator sharing plan.

The Connecticut State Library, in collaboration with eight public libraries in the state, will design and implement a replicable model for regional sharing of digital navigation services to underserved residents. Participating libraries are:

  • Bridgeport Public Library

  • Derby Public Library

  • Hamden Public Library

  • Howard Whittemore Memorial Library, Naugatuck

  • New Haven Free Public Library

  • Wallingford Public Library

  • West Haven Public Library

  • Woodbridge Town Library

The plan seeks to enrich the IMLS-funded Salt Lake City navigator model in Salt Lake City, Utah to facilitate the participation of smaller libraries through a regional collaboration, simultaneously demonstrating efficiencies of scale.

On its website, IMLS describes the National Leadership Grants for Libraries Program (NLG-L), as one that “supports projects that address critical needs of the library and archives fields and have the potential to advance practice and strengthen library and archival services for the American public. Successful proposals will generate results such as new models, tools, research findings, services, practices, and/or alliances that can be widely used, adapted, scaled, or replicated to extend and leverage the benefits of federal investment.”

The State Library of Connecticut’s Regional Navigator Sharing Plan will engage with 2,000 residents in need, distribute 400 computers, and create a toolkit for replication of such regional library collaboration, according to Connecticut State Library officials.

“Libraries are at the forefront of the work closing the digital divide and ending information poverty for our most vulnerable citizens,” said Dawn La Valle, Director, Division of Library Development, CT State Library. “Recognized as a leader in developing programs to address digital equity, CSL’s model project, will inform the rest of the country and provide a turnkey solution for teaching digital literacy skills.”

The implementation of this model is expected to inform those responsible for Digital Equity Act projects across the United States of ways to introduce centralization and efficiencies into the smaller navigation project models with which they are familiar.

This grant project builds on CSL’s ARPA funded Digital Navigator Pilot led by Christine Gauvreau, the CT State Library’s Digital Inclusion Consultant and E-Rate and LSTA Coordinator.

“Connecticut libraries are increasingly playing a role in the effort to close the digital divide,” said Chris Gauvreau. “This project is designed to develop a regional sharing model that will help small and rural libraries contribute without strain.”

“We are proud to continue the work started with the Digital Navigator Pilot,” said State Librarian Deborah Schander. “Thanks to IMLS, we can continue to close the digital divide, both here in Connecticut and across the country.”