Home Connectivity Kits: Procurement Opportunity

Introduction

The California State Library, in partnership with the Southern California Library Cooperative (SCLC), is offering home internet connectivity kits and user guides to every Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) compliant public library in California. These items will be purchased with funds made available through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

Purpose

The purpose of this project is to assist Californians in overcoming hardships caused by the pandemic and to help people throughout the state access the internet in the fashion that is responsive to their needs. Fundamental to this program is providing tools such as devices, connections, and skill lifts to enable Californians to engage with the information, opportunities, and culture that is the internet.

Operations Support

For the setup and lending of these materials, the State Library has created a toolkit that describes some of the most common best practices for setting up a lending collection of these types of materials. The toolkit details:

  • Inventory practices for these items
  • Procedures and policies for the lending of these items
  • Sample user guides

Libraries that participate in the home connectivity kit procurement opportunity are encouraged to use this toolkit as a starting point for setting up their own collections and practices.

Allowable Costs

Allowable costs for this program pertain to technology that helps create meaningful internet connections outside of the library building.

There are three procurement options:

Option 1

The Southern California Library Cooperative will purchase various devices to be bundled as kits. Each kit is subject to inventory availability and will include:

Option 2

Libraries can apply for reimbursement of like items they purchase themselves. Because these items are purchased with funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, any data plan purchased will need to expire at the end of the grant period — September 30, 2022.

Items allowable for reimbursement include:

  • Chromebooks with Google Admin Console
  • Hotspots + data plans that are filtered for CIPA compliance and expire on September 30, 2022.
  • Mobile data network devices and their service plans like Cradlepoints. Service plans must expire before September 30, 2022.
  • Laptop bags / cases
  • Mice (wired or wireless)
  • Over-the-ear headsets (specifically over-the-ear for accessibility purposes).

Items that are not allowable for reimbursement include but are not limited to:

  • Digital readers (e.g., Kindle devices)
  • Networking equipment such as firewalls and modems for an in-library network
  • Cables
  • Desktop computers
  • Printers / copiers / scanners

Option 3

Libraries may both request SCLC purchase various devices listed in Option 1 and apply for reimbursement of allowable like items they purchase themselves. This may be useful for libraries who have an existing contract with a data service provider or for libraries that have standardized on a particular model of devices.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

SCLC has created an FAQ page to help guide libraries in this process.

Funding

Libraries participating in this opportunity will receive a specified allocation of funds that can be spent on eligible devices. If your library is registered with the State Library as a CIPA compliant library, your library director should have already received a notification via email that this funding is available along with your library’s specific funding allocation. If you did not receive that information, please contact the Library Development Services section of the State Library at ARPA@library.ca.gov with the subject line: Home Connectivity Kits.

This project was supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the American Rescue Plan Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.