These mobile Wi-Fi hotspots are now available to Wirt County residents at Dora Bee Woodyard Memorial Library in Elizabeth. (Photo by Candice Black)

ELIZABETH — As of Wednesday, members of the Wirt County community now have access to Wi-Fi hotspots through the Dora Bee Woodyard Memorial Library in Elizabeth.

Efforts to receive the hotspots started last September, according to Breanna King, library director. They were made available by PLA Digital Lead Hotpots through the America Library Association.

According to Cathy Watkins, library employee, Dora Bee Woodyard is one of the only libraries in the state with the program.

Seven hotspots and one year of unlimited data were provided for free.

“The hotspots we’ll always be able to keep but after a year we’ll have to find funding for the data,” King said. “They said there’s possibilities of fulfilling the grant further.”

The Dora Bee Woodyard Memorial Library in Elizabeth is one of the only libraries in the state with a program to lend Wi-Fi hotspots. (Photo by Candice Black)

The Dora Bee Woodyard library serves as one of the only in the state that is both a public and school library.

“This is for high school students and patrons 18 or older,” King said.

Hotspots can be checked out for seven days; they can’t be renewed and it has to be returned for at least a 48-hour period before it can be checked out again.

For those without internet access, the device itself offers a wireless connection.

“They’re free to check out but for each day it’s late, it’s a $10 late fee. If anything happens, if they lose it, if it’s damaged, it’s a $75 replacement fee,” King said.

Students need parent permission to check them out; a form has to be signed and library staff needs to make contact with the parent to verify. Normally, the policy says only people 18 and older but an exception was made since students use the library as well.

“Being a school library, I really wanted kids to have access too,” King said.

With Wirt being a rural county, some don’t have internet access, King said.

“We thought this would be a perfect opportunity to help the community and bring more people to the library. This grant is specifically for rural communities,” she said.

Along with the devices and the data, the library also has access to tech support. If the device is lost or damaged, the data can be shut off to avoid misuse.

“In order to check one out, the patron has to have a completely clean record, no fines from any libraries. (We’ll) make sure they are a patron that we trust and that’s been here,” King said.

New patrons will start out with books and movies to ensure items will be returned before they can rent the hotspot.

The data runs through the Sprint network; any place with Sprint cellphone service, the hotspot can be used.

It’s believed the hotspots will be in fairly high demand.

“We’ve had a lot of people come in and ask for it,” King said. “We’re really excited. We hope it’s going to be a successful program and hope it brings in more people.”

Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.