Broadband projects have connected much of Columbia County to the internet in recent years, but service is unevenly distributed.
“We have a fairly large percentage of the people without reliable internet,” said Ellen Brigham, director of the Dayton Memorial Library. This is especially true, she said, “in the outlying areas and in the rural valleys.”
For the last four years, the Dayton library — the sole library of the Columbia County Rural Library District — has loaned out portable hot spots, palm-sized devices that connect to a wireless network.
Patrons check them out, turn them on, get the network name and password, and log on to the internet using their phone, laptop, iPad or anything with wireless connectivity.
