The CT State Library model that was developed by the anchor team at the Hamden Public Library and enhanced with the participating libraries was based on the following division of labor.
Hub Library
- Administered all financial activity
- Hired and hosted a Project Coordinator
- Hired digital navigators
- Hired and hosted a Data Wrangler
- Hosted a database developer
- Hosted a database
- Proposed method of navigator sharing
- On-boarded Library Directors from participating libraries
- Trained navigators
Participating Library Directors or Director Liaisons
- Hosted navigators for 7.5 hours a week
- Developed and maintained community partners with navigator support
- Prepared staff to work with contracted navigators
- Prepared staff to refer clients to navigators
- Supervised navigators while on site.
- Took responsibility for communication with Project Coordinator
- Attended monthly meetings with other directors that alternated between in-person and online
Hub Library Director
- Scheduled and prepared agendas for monthly meetings of directors
- Oversaw purchasing of outreach materials and devices
- Oversaw expenditures for devices, navigator contractors, and navigator travel
- Oversaw work of the Project Coordinator
- Supported the data developer and manager
Project Coordinator
- Oversaw navigation and community outreach
- Oversaw device distribution to navigator libraries and clients
- Referred clients calling in to a centralized number to navigators
- Responded to library director concerns or expressions of need
- Organized monthly peer-to-peer meetings for navigators
- Oversaw navigator data collection and data wrangler entry work
- Troubleshooted for day-to-day operations
Navigators
- Had business cards and a level of autonomy to organize their time effectively
- Committed to 25 hours of work total per week with at least 15 hours committed to navigation
- Received inquiries from clients and scheduled one-on-one appointments of approximately 60 minutes.
- Provided 7.5 hours each per week to 2 of the 7 participating libraries as possible
- Had the autonomy to divide the additional 10 hours per week to various other tasks
- Used some portion of remaining 10 hours per week to respond to phone messages from clients
- Used some portion of remaining 10 hours per week to follow leads to new community partners
- Used some portion of remaining 10 hours per week to complete and turn in client entry forms, progress reports, and when possible, exit forms
- Brought issues or news of helpful experiences to monthly peer-to-peer navigator meetings
- Brought issues that cannot wait for monthly navigator meetings to directors and/or Project Coordinator
Database Developer and Manager
- Proposed data points to be gathered
- Worked with Project Coordinator to develop and propose data collection forms
- Modified an access table for collation of client information
- Monitored data entry by data wrangler
- Delivered regular reports to participants on navigation results
Data Wrangler
- Entered data from client forms into database in a timely way
- Communicated issues pertaining to data collection to Project Coordinator
Clients
- Clients were solicited via posters and banners at each library. Posters were also hung in offices for municipal services.
- Signage included contact information for individual navigators and their language skills.
- Signage included phone, email, and text contact information for the Project Coordinator based at the Hub
- Clients were referred by reference librarians, computer lab librarians, and community organizations.
- Clients had the choice of reaching out to individual navigators or the Project Coordinator.
- Clients used the contact information to schedule appointments to be held at one of the 7 libraries or in public community locations.
- Due to the gap between demand and capacity, appointments could be scheduled up to two weeks out from the date of initial contact.
- Clients could try to take advantage of scheduled walk-in hours at each library. The degree to which walk-in hours were used for actual walk-ins rather than appointments varied library to library.
- A majority of clients took of advantage of the opportunity for repeat appointments.
Financial Director
In this model, the Hub library provided the services of their financial director to keep the accounts for the project. This included:
- Receive navigator contractor invoices and issue payments
- Order publicity materials, office supplies, and devices
- Track expenditures and present episodic reports on expenses that were difficult to budget in advance, such as navigator travel
Lessons Learned
- The Project Coordinator position is key.
- Navigators are capable of more appointments and more community outreach with autonomy
- Willingness of participating libraries to share in-house staff for materials design, media outreach, and finances is critical.
