E-Rate Commitments: Utilization, Trends, and Impacts on Public Libraries, 2016-2020

TASCHA proposes the following for the scope of analysis and research report on E-Rate Commitments: Utilization, Trends, and Impacts on Public Libraries, 2016-2020 (funding years): TASCHA will analyze e-rate funding commitments, participation, and the following aspects of the e-rate program at a national and state level (where possible) among public libraries included in the IMLS Public Libraries Survey:1. Bandwidth over time2. Fiber deployment – rural vs. urban3. Committed funds by category and subcategory levels for each of these areas, the analysis will focus on presenting an overview of the trends and additional detailed exploration of any findings that we think are of interest to the audience that can inform potential programmatic or policy directions for the e-rate program. Maps will be incorporated as part of the analysis to highlight snapshots of state or national trends. Analysis including additional demographic or technical datasets can be discussed and agreed upon after preliminary data analysis is complete.