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Ad Lib: Advocacy for LibrariesJune 29, 2006 The James K. Polks of the library world are rejoicing!There’s What does this mean for you? Well…probably nothing. Unless you’re planning on annexing property into your library sometime soon, in which case this is cause for celebration! This bill was co-sponsored in the House by area Reps. Kathy Ryg and Sidney Mathias, so you know who’s responsible for making this happen. Update: Oops. This is what happens when we don’t read our sources well enough. The governor actually signed this bill last week, on June 22. So it’s already in effect. posted by Alan at 9:49 am | Comments (0) June 21, 2006 Act Now! Call Your Senators!ALA has put out an urgent call to action on Senate Bill 2686, the Communications, Consumer’s Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006.They want their members to “contact members of the Senate Commerce Committee and urge them to put the public interest back in S. 2686 during the bill’s pending markup.” The markup of this bill is scheduled to happen tomorrow, June 22. There are two main points that need to be addressed on this bill: PROTECT THE E-RATE & UNIVERSAL SERVICE Since neither Senators Durbin or Obama is on the Commerce Committee, you might be wondering what you can do. Well, you can still give their offices a call and ask that they encourage their colleagues who are on the committee to take the steps ALA outlines above. The most important thing is to do it today—right now! E-rate and network neutrality are two issues that are important to the library community, and a single voice might make all the difference. posted by Alan at 1:53 pm | Comments (0) June 15, 2006 Helping To Make the Case for LibrariesIf you want to know what the public thinks of libraries, now is a good time. Back in December, OCLC published the Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report, which took a look at “information-seeking habits and preferences” all over the world. And now the Americans for Libraries Council has joined the discussion with Long Overdue: A Fresh Look at Public and Leadership Attitudes About Libraries in the 21st Century. And if you want help in making the case to your legislators of libraries’ importance to the public, this is the tool for you. Most useful is probably their 5 Things Community Leaders Should Know About Libraries And the Public, which contains the following nuggets:
Not exactly groundbreaking statements, but the report has the statistics to back them up. So is it all sunshine and puppies? Not exactly. Among their findings are the following:
Don’t just take my word for it, though; go check out the report and see if it might not be something that could be useful to you. posted by Alan at 1:27 pm | Comments (0) June 14, 2006 Net Neutrality – One More Time!You know the debate over net neutrality has grown: the Wall Street Journal has an article about it on the front page of their Marketplace section (you have to be a paid subscriber to WSJ to read the article I linked to). Despite an unfortunate misstep by depicting the debate as the traditional Republicans vs. Democrats model—it might turn out to be in Congress (though right now the breakdown is pretty undecided), but outside groups of both ideologies can be found in the net neutrality camp—writers Dionne Searcey and Amy Schatz give a pretty good summary of the debate: As their networks become increasingly clogged with high-capacity services, phone and cable companies want to be able to strike deals with content companies that will offer speedy delivery for music and videos, for example. But smaller content companies worry they’ll be priced out of the market, and consumer groups fear it would give cable and phone companies too much power over content. Things are definitely coming to a head here. The House passed the COPE Bill without allowing any language to protect net neutrality; and the Senate Commerce Committee is now considering a communications bill which, if amended, would specifically define and defend network neutrality. (ALA is asking its members to call their Senators and, if they’re on the Commerce Committee—which Illinois’ Senators aren’t—encourage them to support the Snowe-Dorgan proposal that would put net neutrality language into the bill.) ALA president Michael Gorman has even issued a statement on the issue, in case you had any doubt where the organization stood. So if you still aren’t versed on net neutrality, you can’t find a better time than now to make sure you are. posted by Alan at 4:36 pm | Comments (0) June 12, 2006 Know How They VoteI don’t write enough about advocacy tools on this blog. Let me correct that a little. One of my favorite tools is Congress.org’s MegaVote. This is put together by Capitol Advantage, the folks behind CapWiz. As they describe it: Each week (that Congress is in session) you will receive: It also provides links to Congress.org’s descriptions of the bills in question, so if you need more information, that’s there too. Here’s what my most recent email looked like:
Depending on the vote, this is (obviously) more or less useful from week to week, but it’s definitely kept me more informed as an advocate and as a voter, and I can only imagine you’ll find it useful, too. posted by Alan at 3:35 pm | Comments (0) June 5, 2006 Scientific American Does Net NeutralityThe most recent podcast from Scientific American, Episode 17, features an interview with Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, and Tim Berners-Lee on the question of network neutrality. If you’re still having a hard time getting a grasp of it, or want more information, this isn’t a bad review of the issue if you’ve got a half-hour to spare. (Thanks to fellow NSLSer Jill for drawing my attention to this.) posted by Alan at 1:56 pm | Comments (0) June 1, 2006 MSNBC on IL-8Giving national attention to one of our area elections, MSNBC takes a look at the IL 8th Congressional District and the fight Rep. Melissa Bean faces to keep her seat. If you aren’t aware of that particular battle, this article is a pretty good primer. posted by Alan at 4:41 pm | Comments (0) Net Neutrality Bill on the FloorLast week, the House Judiciary Committee passed H.R. 5417, the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, and sent it on to the floor for a full vote. This bill would protect the concept of net neutrality, and so is supported by ALA. No word on when this will come to a vote, but now’s the time to contact your members of the House and let them know how you want them to vote. If you’re not sure how to get ahold of them, you can always find their contact info in the NSLS legislative directory. ALA has more on this legislation, too. posted by Alan at 10:48 am | Comments (0)
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