SolarSPELL, a solar-powered educational library system developed at ASU, is bringing tools and information to crisis-response teams in Phoenix responding to potential traumatic events for children.
With projects in 15 countries worldwide, SolarSPELL units function as offline digital libraries for communities with little or no internet access. London Auster, a doctoral student studying advanced nursing practice, works with SolarSPELL to create resources for crisis responders.
"(Crisis responders) had a lack of knowledge and a lack of resources, specifically for the pediatric population that they serve in the greater West Phoenix," Auster said. "They decided to reach out to SolarSPELL and ask for some additional resources."
To support children at crisis sites, Auster helped curate a child trauma toolkit for the Phoenix Fire Department's SolarSPELL devices. The toolkit includes open-access resources from sites like PBS Learning Media and Sesame Street to be used to help distract children in "high-stress" situations, Auster said.
According to SolarSPELL's website, each device includes a solar panel and a recycled-plastic case that is resistant to heat, dust and water. The device creates a Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing any smartphone, tablet or laptop to connect and access the library without an internet connection.
Quite a bit of work goes into making the content accessible for the responders, Auster said. Curators must find all of the educational materials and the associated metadata, tag the information and adjust it to the appropriate reading level before being able to use the units offline.
Laura Hosman, co-founder and director of SolarSPELL and an associate professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, said the digital libraries also contain content which was previously distributed on paper for crisis responders, that a team of students digitized.
"We can always keep adding collections because a library can serve any informational purpose," Hosman said. "The exciting thing that's coming next for any of our given collections is being able to use AI on our libraries."
READ MORE: Offline AI tool makes education accessible to areas without internet
Future plans for the SolarSPELL team include using the library as a database to train an AI model that can be used offline in the field, she said.
HeatherRoss, an assistant professor for Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation and co-director of SolarSPELL Health, said the setup of the SolarSPELL units makes it ideal for crisis work.
"The libraries have continued to be updated with the materials that the crisis responders are using on paper, and it has been expanded to include not only the crisis response collection, but also the behavioral health response collections that the city of Phoenix uses," Ross said.
The child trauma toolkit is designed for crisis situations where children may remain on the incident site for long periods of time. Ross said it is a resource that is a soothing and safe solution for responders to use with children in such scenarios.
"One of the most important and impactful things that we can do to help children recover from trauma is to provide them with distraction during the immediate time of a traumatic event," Ross said.
Edited by Kate Gore, Senna James, Sophia Braccio and Ellis Preston.
Reach the reporter at afrahma1@asu.edu.
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Ariana is a sophomore studying Biomedical Informatics. This is her first semester with The State Press.
