Exploring Innovative Strategies and Services in a Pandemic Era

In "Bridging the Digital Divide: WiFi Hot Spots as a Means of Digital Equity,” Meghan Salsbury and Mary Anne Hansen detail the development of a project to provide wireless access to their rural students. Confronting the digital divide inherent in sparsely populated Montana, the authors obtained a grant to purchase and lend wireless hot spots to students and faculty members as long-term circulating items. The article describes resources in this area and explains the benefits of ambient noise for productivity and maximized concentration. Calling it "innovation under pressure,” their case study highlights two professional development initiatives—one for current library instructors and one for MLIS students—and the rapid transition of their instruction in the university's academic writing program to online delivery.