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UEN and USL Collaborate on First Statewide Inventory of Library Tech

In fall of 2024, the Utah Education Network and the Utah State Library Division teamed up to conduct the first-ever statewide inventory of technology in Utah public libraries.

All 60 main libraries participated in the survey which gathered data on everything from equipment and devices to hardware and infrastructure.

Public libraries play a critical role in connecting Utahns to educational resources and other opportunities. They provide access to the internet, devices and digital literacy programs, each serving 47,000 patrons on average. The goal of the inventory is to help library directors and other stakeholders make informed decisions about technology priorities.

Connected Nation, the technology nonprofit UEN has worked with to conduct similar inventories of school technology, crunched the numbers and produced the report, providing both a general view and a summary of each individual library’s responses. Insights from the data include:

  • At about 1 in 5 main libraries, patrons can access Wi-Fi from anywhere on the library grounds, but about 1 in 6 libraries have no Wi-Fi coverage outdoors.
  • Nearly one-third of main libraries have Wi-Fi equipment that is four or more years old.
  • Nearly half of wired equipment is four or more years old.
  • More than 1 in 4 main libraries have no computing devices such as laptops, tablets and Wi-FI hotspots that patrons can check out.

“This particular study is unique, as far as we’re aware,” said Brent Legg, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs for Connected Nation. He noted that, while the Public Library Association conducted a national survey in 2020, Utah appears to be the first to achieve a statewide inventory of this type.

“This [project] is a huge step in continuing to support public libraries through training, helping them create more robust technology plans and really seeing the needs in each community,” said USL Director Cara Rothman. “Big highlights are our continued collaboration and partnership and great working relationship with UEN.”

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