There are more public libraries than McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S., and Sarah Sugden dreams of the day when those libraries shine as an even brighter beacon of reliable service than the golden arches.
With the piloting of the new Job Pods program last spring, the Brown County library director is moving one step closer to realizing her vision of “fulfilling the true potential of public libraries.”
Sugden was the library director in her hometown of Waterville, Maine in 2017 when she received the National Medal for Museum and Library Service honoring the library’s Business, Career and Creativity Center that had opened in 2011 following the closure of the local job center.
“People came to the library, because to get to the nearest job center was 20 minutes by highway in a car,” Sugden recalls. “They needed help.”
Sugden, who says she has spent more than two decades thinking about the potential of libraries to partner with workforce development agencies, came to Wisconsin — home to more than 500 public libraries and countless collaborative possibilities — to further her dream. And in the six years since she arrived in the state, she has already seen five job center closures.
It was in the spirit of “respectful, joyful collaboration” that Sugden came together with the Bay Area Workforce Development Board and Nicolet Federated Library System in 2023 to pursue a partnership. The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and Microsoft have since come on board as additional partners, and in March 2024 the very first Job Pod opened at Brown County East Branch Library. The next locations were Algoma and Niagara, says Bay Area Workforce Development Board Executive Director Vickie Patterson, and thanks to a grant from DWD six more locations are currently in the works, slated to open by September.
“We’re talking to other libraries and other library systems to see if they’re interested in [working] with other workforce boards, because we want it to be a joint partnership across the state,” Patterson says.
‘We’re already doing it’
Public libraries, which are designed to be accessible and centrally located, are a natural place to access community resources. With the advent of the internet, libraries became a much-sought-after resource for accessing free computers and connectivity. Internet access remains one of public libraries’ top services in 2025.
“Lots of people still don’t have internet at home, or if they do it’s terrible,” Sugden says. “The fact that almost every public library in the country offers public computers, public internet, public WiFi, free and open, has been a big equalizer.”
Sugden says the opportunity to access virtual services like telehealth and job placement means librarians don’t have to be subject matter experts in those fields. They can stick to their strengths — supporting technology and helping people.
“This is the best part: We’re already doing it,” Sugden says. “Librarians are nice. We like people. We like to help. We’re there to help with the technology, and we can keep the experts focused on what they do best.”
Patterson agrees.
“We can’t afford to have job centers all over the place, and why should we duplicate computer labs that libraries already have? They are in almost every small community,” Patterson says. “So it just makes sense.”
Job Pods are pretty simple: They are private spaces, open during library hours, that allow members of the community to make appointments and connect with the Job Center of Wisconsin via free computer and internet access. In cases where private spaces weren’t available within a library’s existing infrastructure (Brown County East simply converted an existing study room), pods have been purchased from local furniture maker KI, Patterson says.
Having already touched lives with access to career services in Maine and Wisconsin, Sugden dreams of taking Job Pods nationwide, creating models that are scalable and customized to local conditions.
“We can’t afford to be siloed,” she says. “We have to think collaboratively if we’re going to do our best work.”
On the web: jobpodwi.org
