[OPLINTECH] Hotspot Management

[Morgan Makar]

Hi, Joe.

I’ve worked on our hotspot program for several years now and I’d be happy to talk to you about what we’ve learned.
Feel free to reach out to me directly.

Thanks.

Morgan Makar
Computer Technician
Mentor Public Library
8215 Mentor Avenue
Mentor, OH  44060
440-255-8811 x203
440-205-1153 Fax

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From: OPLINTECH <oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org<mailto:oplintech-bounces at lists.oplin.org>> On Behalf Of Joe Dusenbery via OPLINTECH
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2022 2:02 PM
To: OPLINTECH <oplintech at lists.oplin.org<mailto:oplintech at lists.oplin.org>>
Subject: [OPLINTECH] Hotspot Management

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Howdy OPLIN Tech,

I am reaching out to hear how other libraries are managing mobile hotspots to see if anyone has any tips or tricks that will improve our process.

Unfortunately, hotspots tend to be kept long past their due dates so we created a procedure designed around encouraging the return of these overdue hotspots but the procedure is somewhat tedious and time consuming. Our ILS automatically sends overdue notifications but those get ignored. After several weeks of being overdue, we turn off the service to encourage their return. This process is where the tedium comes into play. The majority of our hotspots have TMobile service through Mobile Citizen who provide them to us at a very reasonable monthly rate. The trade-off for saving money on the service is that we do not have any way to stop the service ourselves. Instead we must contact Mobile Citizen who then contacts TMobile to temporarily stop the service. This process can take a day or more. We then manually put notes on the ILS item records so that if/when it is returned, Circulation staff know the service has been stopped. Circ will then let us know that the service needs to be restored. We again must contact Mobile Citizen and there can be even more lag time before we receive confirmation that the service has been restored and the hotspot can go back into circulation.

The holds queue for the hotspots is always pretty lengthy so we want to get them back and out to the next patron as quickly as possible. With our current process, we wait until the hotspots reach "long overdue" status before stopping the service which does not happen until they are 30 days overdue. I'm working with my ILS vendor to get a new report created that will show all overdue hotspots and how long they have been overdue. That way we can stop service much sooner at the 7ish days overdue point instead of 30 days. We think/hope this will have a positive impact.

For those libraries that have hotspots, how do you manage them? Do you also stop service to encourage their return? What hotspot service provider(s) do you use? How do you keep everything organized? Any insight/advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

Joseph R. Dusenbery, MISST
IT Director
Muskingum County Library System
220 N 5th Street
Zanesville OH 43701
740.453.0391, ext. 152
muskingumlibrary.org<http://muskingumlibrary.org>
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