The Robin Hood Foundation engaged TIPI in 2015 to evaluate a program in which mobile hotspot devices and library-funded broadband provide access to 10,000 families in New York City. The goal of the overall assessment is to examine why people have home-based wireless broadband, uses of their connectivity and how this leads to changes in people’s learning patterns, health and educational information seeking and ability to access other social services. Awarded grants funds totaled $202,202 with the project continuing until end February 2018. NYPL spearheaded the project on behalf of the city’s other two major library systems, the Queens Borough Public Library, and Brooklyn Public Library (BPL).
In addition, NYPL worked with the State Library systems of Kansas and Maine to study how this lending concept could be adapted throughout the United States.