Access-point inventories and coverage records from 2006, point-to-point backhaul standing up wireless at branch sites, then a full Wi-Fi build-out documented with floor plans and heat maps.
The requirement was set by what ran on the network rather than by the users. Librarians carried Vocera voice badges, which makes this a clinical-grade wireless problem sitting in a public building: a badge that cannot hold a call in the stacks is a staff safety failure rather than a coverage statistic. A later review of the badge network found legacy encryption still in service on it — what happens when a device fleet outlives the security standard it shipped with.
The procurements behind it
The Main Library Wi-Fi request for proposal and its bid evaluation instrument; the library-wide wireless RFP carried through successive revisions with priced appendices and floor-plan and heat-map annexes; an access-point renewal taken to competitive bid on a scoring matrix; and the enterprise network replacement evaluated across integrator bids.
Library technology is funded in part through E-Rate, the federal schools-and-libraries program, which puts the specification under a funding regime carrying its own eligibility and documentation rules on top of city procurement. The document has to satisfy two sets of rules and still describe a network that works.
Outcome
Coverage specified as a measurable threshold and proved after installation, rather than reported as an impression.