[OPLINTECH] Hotspot Management

[Jessica Dooley]

Hi Joe,

Just information sharing, not a recommendation - I have no experience with
this product.

Kajeet offers a managed hotspot service called Smartspot, including
multiple carriers. Hotspots are enrolled in their Sentinel management tool,
including a web portal that promises libraries "real time device and data
management." Most of their language is designed around selling to schools
for at-home learning, but they also sell to libraries.
https://www.kajeet.net/solutions/distance-learning/smartspots/

I'd be interested to hear if any libraries have used this vendor, and what
you found!

Jessica D. Dooley (she/her)
Technology Project Manager
Ohio Public Library Information Network
jessica at oplin.ohio.gov
614-728-5254


On Thu, Aug 25, 2022 at 2:02 PM Joe Dusenbery via OPLINTECH <
oplintech at lists.oplin.org> wrote:

> 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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