Federal Broadband PushPoses Major Opportunities for Libraries; ALA Says Local Efforts Still Needed
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 02/03/2009
- $9 billion in stimulus funds under debate
- $200 million for public computer centers, including libraries
- ALA says overall package would have major impact
- Questions about whether money is too little, or targeted wrongly
- ALA says sustainability will remain focus for state/local efforts
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So would the pending push for $9 billion in broadband assistance help libraries? Absolutely. Not only would the buildout offer connection speeds libraries desire, but the Senate bill includes at least $200 million in “competitive grants for expanding public computer center capacity, including at community colleges and public libraries.”
"We see this stimulus not just as a great way to help libraries but [also a way] to bring services and applications now exclusively online to the American public," Lynne Bradley of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Washington Office, told LJ.
Broadband, she said, is "just a means to an end. But libraries are unique and special institutions that are going to make broadband and its applications become real to the American public," citing job-hunting, distance learning, and other applications that would improve our economy.
Still, a representative of the ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) stresses that ongoing state and local projects to enhance sustainable service at libraries should not be abandoned.
Debate this week
The New York Times today airs pro and con voices regarding the $9 billion in federal stimulus money, currently under debate in the Senate, which could end early next week.
On the one hand, the broadband stimulus could help businesses and residents significantly—the Times leaves out libraries as examples of beneficiaries, though they would remain crucial points of access for those without computers. On the other, the Times quotes critics as saying that the bill could favor large Internet service providers and that meeting minimum speed requirements set in the House of Representatives version of the bill would be unnecessary “Cadillac” service. (There’s no requirement as of yet in the Senate bill.)
Moreover, those concerned about the immediate impact of the stimulus note that it would take at least until 2015 to spend the funds. And others say that more than 11 times more, $100 billion, would be required to truly install national service. Still, advocates like Ben Scott, the policy director for Free Press, have praised the effort as “a down payment on our digital future,” pointing out that Congress would enforce net neutrality, a requirement not to discriminate on the basis of content.
How to divide funds
"We know there’s going to be a breadbox there," Bradley said. "What size and shape and what kind of bread we have in it is still unknown." She noted that the stimulus package aims not to establish new programs but use existing vehicles.
Once such vehicle, Bradley said, could be a revival of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), which from 1994 to 2004 made matching grants to state, local, and tribal governments, health care providers, schools, libraries, police departments, and community-based nonprofit organizations.
Sustainability issues
Last month, the Gates Foundation announced a $6.9 million program in collaboration with Connected Nation and OITP to public libraries in seven states to secure faster Internet connections. OITP director Alan Inouye told LJ that, in contrast to the apparent aims of the federal program, the Gates Foundation initiative focuses on the larger context of sustainability. “You can buy new hardware today for networking, install it and have better connectivity, but you have to pay the bill every month,” he said, noting that OITP is working on case studies on sustainability.
In any case, he noted, after a few years, someone would have to pay the bills: “I don’t think the stimulus package is going to answer the question. In the short term, someone has to build out the infrastructure, but in the long-run, libraries have to pay for it.”
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