I’m so happy to work on this project — an IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) sponsored effort to improve broadband performance for rural and tribal libraries in the US.  The idea is to create a stand-alone, self-guided resource that *anyone* can use — despite their level of technical knowledge — to understand their data network and discover ways to improve their connectivity.

I’ve been working on the project for the past 1 1/2 years with the most excellent Susannah Spellman and James Werle of Internet 2.  After creating the toolkit together, we’re now thick in the pilot phase, visiting libraries in Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Idaho, Washington, Texas, Alaska and more to come before the pilot wraps up in the spring of 2018.  The purpose of the pilots are to try the toolkit out in the field and make improvements — in realtime — to make it even better.

We wrote a little bit about the program for the May/June 2017 Issue of Digital Libraries (D-Lib). Read all about it here.   Thanks!