Digital Navigators Land At The Library

Downtown library patrons are now able to receive free technology assistance — from connecting to the internet to making doctor’s appointments online to communicating with long-distance family members and friends — from a team of dedicated ​“digital navigators.”

Those digital navigators have come to seven libraries in Connecticut, including the New Haven Free Public Library’s (NHFPL) Ives Main Library branch, as part of a pilot program. That news came at a Monday morning press conference held at Ives celebrating the launch of the Digital Equity Project as part of an effort to narrow the ​“digital divide” in Connecticut. 

The pilot program is funded by an Institute Museum and Library Services grant of $249,948 provided to the Connecticut State Library from July 2024 until May 2025.

“This grant comes at a critical time, both in Connecticut and in our country. We continue to recover from the devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, which laid bare…those who have ready access to technology and digital tools, and those who do not,” Connecticut State Librarian Deborah Schander said.

“Students are unable to learn, parents are unable to work, seniors are unable to attend medical appointments, and everyone struggles to pay taxes, to communicate with family, friends and government services.”

Navigators will provide one-on-one assistance for a wide range of needs with computers, tablets, smartphones, and other household digital devices. Some of these are more general, like connecting to the Internet. Others are more specific, like filing taxes or even, as Hamden Public Library Director Melissa Canham-Clyne recalled on Monday, creating a dating profile.

Three digital navigators will be stationed at seven regional library locations: the New Haven Free Public Library, the Bridgeport Public Library, the Derby Neck Public Library, the Hamden Public Library, the Howard Whittemore Memorial Library, the West Haven Public Library, and the Woodbridge Town Library. 

Between the three navigators, three languages are covered — English, Spanish, and Arabic. State Library Digital Inclusion Consultant Christine Gauvreau shared that they look forward to expanding the program to include other target languages such as Portuguese and Haitian Creole.

People can schedule an appointment with digital navigators by phone or by popping into a participating library. A session typically lasts 60 minutes, but they can sometimes take longer, according to Daniel Velez, one of the three navigators.

Velez said that there isn’t exactly one thing that people commonly have issues with, noting that ​“people have such a wide range of needs.” He described his day-to-day on the job, starting off with checking his appointments for the day, reminding those people via text or email of their session, and eventually meeting with them at the library. 

Velez said that sometimes people don’t have reliable transportation or they find the library inconvenient, in which case he will meet them at a place more amenable. Alongside Velez, who serves the Woodbridge and West Haven library locations, Hugh-John Dunkley and Mohammed Al Haj Ali are the other two navigators, with Dunkley assigned to the New Haven location.

Part of the importance of the program, according to Canham-Clyne, is to establish digital navigation as a legitimate staff position at libraries.

“[Digital navigation] is a profession that is very natural to librarians, because librarians do it every day,” Canham-Clyne said. ​“But we can’t do it the same way that navigators do. The difference between a navigator and a librarian is the amount of time that the navigator spends with the person coming in.”

During the early days of the pandemic, Canham-Clyne snuck people who needed to use the computer into the library. These people had no access to a computer, or had difficulty connecting online.

“Some of them needed to file their taxes. Some of them just wanted to shop online. Some of them felt that they needed to connect with their doctors,” Canham-Clyne said.

She quickly stopped when she understood the risk this posed to her staff, but the sentiment stuck with her — how could libraries better connect those in the surrounding community online? The answer came in the form of digital navigators who provided free one-on-one technology assistance and information. The Hamden Library started its own digital navigator project in January 2022 which, according to Canham-Clyne, helped over 600 people over the span of its program.

After a discussion with Gauvreau, Canham-Clyne conceived of an idea to make digital navigators a broader program. This was the inception of what would become the current program.

“Digital literacy is never done,” Canham-Clyne said. ​“Technology develops and evolves almost as fast as the speed of light. Now artificial intelligence is a huge thing. We have clients coming trying to understand that. We’re trying to understand all those things constantly.”