You may have noticed in a recent Illinois e-News announcement that Governor Pritzker announced a new interactive broadband mapping and speed test tool. The information on the Illinois Broadband Lab website includes data from many sources, including data submitted by IHLS for the public libraries in Illinois. The map has a lot of interesting options that you can turn on and off to see what’s available around your community.

One particularly interesting feature is a county-by-county map that can be downloaded and printed. These county maps are here so you can show people in your community the data. Your mayors, council members, and residents might be surprised at how much of their county is unserved by broadband. Our libraries are a central source of knowledge and data for our communities, and need to have better and faster access to the Internet.

IHLS and the Illinois Library Association (ILA) are hard at work to provide more options for libraries across the state to have access to high-quality and affordable broadband. ILA also announced its Legislative Agenda for 2022, which includes a priority for high-speed broadband to all public libraries in Illinois. The interactive map and website announced by the governor will help make our case.

You can access all the tools referenced here at http://ibl.illinois.edu/. 

Please reach out to Troy Brown, IT Director at IHLS, at tbrown@illinoisheartland.org or 618.367.8740 with any questions or concerns you might have