You Can Now Check Out Free, Take-Home Internet Hubs From These Brooklyn Libraries

Kemesh Barua, a 53-year-old father of four who’s currently out of work in Bed-Stuy, said he would use his device to hunt for job opportunities online. Photo by Simone Wilson

Around 27 percent of New Yorkers don’t have access to internet at home, according to city data.

In 2015, a team of librarians, tech giants and philanthropists are attempting to whittle away at that staggering figure with a first-of-its-kind internet lending program.

On Monday morning, a roomful of regulars at the Macon library branch in Bed-Stuy sat, attentive but antsy, through a Sprint HotSpot tutorial.

“Thank you for being our guinea pigs today,” William Floyd, head of external affairs for Google’s New York office, told the group. ”I hope to hear back that this program is worthwhile.”

When each Bed-Stuy resident in the room left the library that day, they left with a small, smartphone-sized box in hand. Inside was a free wifi hub, called a ”MiFi” device, that they could use to connect to the internet through a desktop, laptop, cell phone or tablet — at home, for free.

“It’s really small. It’s cute,” explained a library staffer to the group. “It can go in your purse, ladies. And your pockets, gentlemen.”

Kemesh Barua, a 53-year-old father of four who’s currently out of work in Bed-Stuy, said he would use his device to hunt for job opportunities online. ”I am looking for a job, and when I find a job, it will change my life,” he said.

Barua said he hoped his oldest child, 7, could also use the device as a homework helper.

April Lawrence, 22, who’s been living at a nearby homeless shelter, said internet will be a game-changer for her, as she’s currently working toward a degree in criminal law at an online university. She said she would share her new internet hub with the eight girls at her shelter.

“You just feel vulnerable without it,” Lawrence said. “You feel like you’re disconnected from the world.”

Google, the Knight Foundation and the Robin Hood Foundation pitched funds toward the program’s $2 million annual budget. That’s how much it’ll take to distribute 10,000 of these devices to NYC residents this year, using the city’s libraries as lenders, according to Floyd.

“People should be able to borrow the internet like they borrow a book,” he said in an interview at the Macon branch.

Around 3,000 of the devices will go to Brooklyn residents — but interested parties have to act fast, as 2,000 of them have already been claimed, and counting.

Here are the Brooklyn branches where you can check out a MiFi hub of your own.

• Brownsville Library
• Bushwick Library
• Canarsie Library
• Clarendon Library
• Coney Island Library
• Crown Heights Library
• Cypress Hills Library
• DeKalb Library
• East Flatbush Library
• Eastern Parkway Library
• Flatbush Library
• Kings Bay Library
• Macon Library
• Marcy Library
• New Lots Library
• Red Hook Library
• Rugby Library
• Saratoga Library
• Stone Avenue Library
• Sunset Park Library
• Walt Whitman Library
• Washington Irving Library

Each unit comes equipped with an unlimited data plan from Sprint, and can connect to 10 different mobile devices during its one-year loan period, according to Brooklyn Public Library officials.

However — much like with most commercial cellphone plans — the HotSpot’s connection speed will start lagging each month once a user has sucked up 6 GB of data.

And if you haven’t returned your device within one week of its turn-in date, you’ll be charged a painful $200.

In order to qualify for a device, you must:

• Be an adult aged 17 and older
• Have a valid Brooklyn Public Library card with under $15 in fines*
• Have a valid New York State ID (Driver’s License, Permit, or Identification Card), Passport, or Armed Services card
• Have less than $15 in overdue fines and be cleared of any BPL collection agency fees
• Have a recent piece of mail postmarked within 90 days
• Have no Internet access at home
• Agree to participate in surveys and other outcome based evaluations
• Agree to Sprint’s acceptable use policy, which prohibits pirating, illegal downloads, viewing child pornography, etc.

For more information on the program, visit the Brooklyn Public Library website.