{"id":75915,"date":"2014-07-03T13:45:55","date_gmt":"2014-07-03T18:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=75915"},"modified":"2014-07-02T17:53:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-02T22:53:45","slug":"why-the-fcc-needs-to-hear-from-librarians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=75915","title":{"rendered":"Why the FCC Needs to Hear from Librarians"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Katherine Kimball Adelberg, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Michigan<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Why the FCC Needs to Hear from Librarians<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"Katherine<\/a>This summer, the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC) is debating one of the\u00a0Internet\u2019s founding principles: net neutrality<\/a>. They\u2019re also giving you a chance to participate.<\/p>\n

The FCC might appear to be a dinosaur of federal bureaucracy, but they have one redeeming\u00a0quality: they accept written comments from anyone. Not only can anyone comment, but the\u00a0Commissioners listen. As a state E-rate coordinator, I monitor and contribute comments on the\u00a0ongoing E-rate reform process. When issues are raised, the Commissioners have respond.<\/p>\n

The FCC has received almost 200,000 comments on net neutrality to date. With so many\u00a0individuals (and corporations) weighing in, why should the library community get involved?<\/p>\n

Librarians offer a unique perspective on the impact of proposed \u201cfast lanes<\/a>\u201d. We create and\u00a0curate digital content and act as Internet service provider of last resort (especially in public\u00a0libraries).<\/p>\n

What would happen to library-created content (or any educational content) under this proposal?\u00a0How would this affect customers whose only connection to the Internet occurs in the library?\u00a0How would it affect freedom of speech? Scholarly communication? Access to information?\u00a0These are just a few of the aspects of this proposal that are core issues of librarianship.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, ALA\u2019s Washington Office<\/a> and Office for Information and Technology Policy<\/a> (OITP)\u00a0have been tracking net neutrality developments very closely. They\u2019ve already written<\/a> about\u00a0their response on the District Dispatch blog, and have been interviewed<\/a> in the Washington Post.\u00a0ALA has contributed a letter<\/a> with EDUCAUSE and the Association of Research Libraries, and\u00a0will contribute more detailed comments on its own.<\/p>\n

What can librarians do to help?<\/p>\n

1. Write comments and submit them to openinternet@fcc.gov<\/a>. The deadline for the first\u00a0round of comments is July 15th. The second round of comments, an opportunity to reply\u00a0to what has already been posted, will be due by August 15th.<\/p>\n

2. Encourage your state association or state library to contribute comments. Does\u00a0your state have an Intellectual Freedom Committee<\/a>? Get in touch and offer to help.\u00a0Comments from individuals are meaningful, but comments from associations and groups\u00a0are even more powerful.<\/p>\n

3. Write in support of the letter<\/a> from ALA, ARL, and EDUCAUSE. Specifically stating that\u00a0you support their letter magnifies its impact.<\/p>\n

4. Monitor news sources like ALA\u2019s District Dispatch<\/a> or the Washington Post\u2019s The Switch<\/a>\u00a0blog. Once ALA has posted their full comments, reply with a letter of support. The\u00a0deadline for reply comments is August 15th.<\/p>\n

A few things to consider:<\/p>\n

\u25cf Anything submitted will be publicly available online via the FCC\u2019s Electronic Comment\u00a0Filing System<\/a>. This includes your name (if you file as an individual) and email address.<\/p>\n

\u25cf AT&T has already filed comments and met in person with FCC staff five times.\u00a0Representatives from Verizon have met with FCC staff three times. Comcast has filed a\u00a0letter<\/a>. Why shouldn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

\u25cf The FCC\u2019s Chairman Wheeler is not a dingo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Commissioners are struggling to find a way to preserve net neutrality. Earlier this year the\u00a0U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. struck down<\/a> provisions in the FCC\u2019s Open Internet\u00a0Order, ruling that the FCC had not chosen the proper legal framework to justify its enforcement\u00a0of net neutrality. The principles of net neutrality are still valid, but the method of achieving it was\u00a0unsound.<\/p>\n

Librarians, let the FCC know what net neutrality means to you! The Commissioners will not\u00a0hear about our needs and those of our customers unless we speak to them directly. Contact\u00a0them at\u00a0openinternet@fcc.gov<\/a> and let them know where we stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Katherine Kimball Adelberg, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Michigan Why the FCC Needs to Hear from Librarians This summer, the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC) is debating one of the\u00a0Internet\u2019s founding principles: net neutrality. They\u2019re also giving you a chance to participate. The FCC might appear to be a dinosaur of federal bureaucracy, but they have one…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":56971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,6323,3638,5921,6324,6322],"class_list":["post-75915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-federal-communications-commission","tag-inalj-michigan","tag-katherine-kimball-adelberg","tag-net-neutrality","tag-the-fcc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Katherine-Kimball-Adelberg.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-jKr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/56971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}