PLA Blog

I came into this session a little late, and unfortunately missed the first two speakers. When I arrived, Bob Bocher, Chair of ALA’s OITP & COL’s Telecom Subcommittee was beginning to update the listeners about the Gates Foundation Connectivity Project. The goals of the new Gates Grants are:

• to provide sustainability programs such as staff training and tech support for libraries that already have computers through previous Gates Grants or other programs.
• to assist more public libraries in obtaining broadband Internet connectivity so that library users can have the same access to information as those with at-home broadband.  (This really struck a chord with me. Earlier this week, I had a conversation with a library patron about the huge difficulty she had in accessing newer, image-heavy websites with her dial-up connection at home. High-speed Internet access makes so much of a difference when doing Internet research, especially now, when website creators tend to assume users have it. Having dial-up does not provide equal access to information.)

 ALA Consultant Paula Bruening then spoke on Privacy Issues facing the new Congress. She predicts that the 110th Congress, particularly Judiciary Committee Chairman Senator Patrick Leahy, will bring new checks and balances to ongoing privacy issues. She suggests that the upcoming discussions (starting January 23rd) on the US-VISIT program should allow the public an opportunity to see how the new Congress will deal with striking a balance between the need for law enforcement and the public’s rights to privacy. She also discussed the following privacy issues facing the new Congress:

• The Real ID Act- This act was passed to ensure that all states issue driver’s licenses and other ID according to federal standards, creating a de facto national ID card. Bruening suggests that a law will be proposed to repeal this act. She feels that the idea of a national ID may stick, but that lawmakers see a need to bring more parties into the discussion on how and why these changes are being made and how best to implement the changes.
• ISP record retention- The usage records maintained by Internet service providers allow the ISPs to evaluate how their product is being used and create usage statistics, but they also provide law enforcement with a means to view the history of a particular computer for up to 30 days. While this can be helpful in tracking child porn offenders and tracing threats made via the Internet, it also has a potential for abuse that must be monitored.
• Wiretap-friendly communication providers- Telecommunication providers, including ISPs, must by law be able to be wiretapped. The 110th will have to decide whether this is a workable and just law.

Tom Susman, of Ropes & Gray in Washington, DC, reported the following on e-government and libraries:

• Libraries are increasingly called on as a favored intermediary for e-government and emergency services. Government agency representative are increasingly instructing callers to go to their local library to find the information they have put online or download online-only forms. Medicare and Prescription Drug Plan info and forms were primarily available online, as were FEMA forms during the recent hurricane disasters.
• The government is being ”remarkably unresponsive” in finding ways to improve their services and make their online information easier for average users to access without assistance from a librarian. Assuming that one of the functions of government is to provide emergency services, it should follow that they should fund any institution endorsed by their representatives to provide those necessary emergency services in their place.
• Libraries are not getting government funding in return for the work we are doing on their behalf.
• Therefore, we need to continue working to be recognized as official e-government service providers. As official service providers, we would be compensated for the time and resources that go into assisting the public with e-government sites, forms and services. Libraries would, of course, be able to opt out of providing e-government services and refuse the funding, but for the vast majority of public libraries, these are services we are already providing without compensation.

After Susman finished speaking, several questions were raised. A GODORT representative suggested that the federal repositories may already be filling the role of official e-goverment service providers. Susman argued that while GODORT and federal repository libraries had a significant role to play in e-government, the GPO would probably not be at the frontlines during an emergency to assist the public in filing forms and finding timely information.

Another librarian pointed out that it was unlikely that we would get this funded when we cannot get funding from the IRS for providing tax forms for patron. Susman concluded by stressing the necessity in maintaining optimism and imagining a better world for libraries when proposing legislation.

The final speaker, Mike Flynn, Director of the Office of Information Analysis and Access Office of Environmental Information at the EPA, gave a PowerPoint presentation on the US EPA’s Library Modernization Effort before fielding questions about availability of EPA information and the recent and upcoming closings of several EPA libraries.  His presentation stressed that the EPA was modernizing its libraries by:

• increasing its Internet presence
• digitizing more of its holdings
• maintaining a strong physical presence
• branching out to the public online while streamlining access for both the public and its employees.

He promised to continue such public services as ILL, FAQs, and the National Environmental Publications Information Site.

The question and answer period following his presentation was extremely spirited and enjoyable in direct proportions to one’s level of cynicism regarding the government’s desire to make information freely and easily accessible.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 27th, 2007 at 2:39 pm and is filed under PLA Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.