ALA Wastes No Time – Our Work on Digital Literacy

Posted on May 31, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Since the New York Times article “Wasting Time is New Digital Divide” posted on May 29, 2012, we’ve been getting a number of questions along the lines of, “Hey, so is ALA working with the FCC on the digital literacy corps?” We thought it a good idea to give a little primer on exactly what ALA has been doing on digital literacy.

Our involvement actually started way back when the FCC was collecting information to create the National Broadband Plan (NBP), the FCC plan which deals with improving broadband Internet access throughout the United States. We submitted comments to several public notices, including one asking questions about broadband adoption. We also worked with the Social Science Research Council, which was commissioned to research broadband adoption in low-income communities, to put them in touch with libraries in their target areas. The NBP made a number of recommendations related to improving broadband adoption, taking into consideration identified barriers of cost, availability, relevancy, and digital literacy. One of the recommendations was to create a digital literacy corps after the AmeriCorps model. To date, this has not been pursued.

Since the release of the NBP, the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy has stayed involved with both the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NITA) and the FCC as both agencies have begun implementing recommendations made in the NBP. Among these were the creation of the digitalliteracy.gov portal last spring and the launching of the Connect 2 Compete initiative last fall.

To the issue brought out in the Times article, ALA submitted comments to the FCC’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) on a proposal to fund digital literacy training through libraries and schools using savings realized from Lifeline program reforms. The FCC proposes to fund formal digital literacy training at $50 million per year over four years. This proceeding is ongoing, though the comment period is closed.

ALA continues to advocate for libraries in this proceeding, knowing that libraries offer a formidable “triple play” of assets to support learners in gaining the digital skills necessary to thrive online.

Larra Clark and Marijke Visser
OITP

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Posted in OITP, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications

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This Week: ALA Seeking Feedback on Digital Content

Posted on May 29, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group, which tackles ebook-related issues, is seeking feedback from individuals who experiment with the creation, publication, and preservation of digital content. The deadline to participate in the survey is Friday, June 1, 2012.

We are looking for digitization effort experiments that can help ALA recommend policies, address issues, or promote information exchange about this emerging area.

What We Need
By Friday, June 1, 2012, email dcwg-input@ala.org with the following information:

  • A brief description of your institution’s efforts to create digital content. For instance, this might include Open Access scholarship, the co-creation of ePub files featuring local authors, or the unique gathering of local history photographs and/or oral histories.
  • Some key observations of important issues, roadblocks, and discoveries. For instance, what group of authors or publishers have you worked with directly? Which approaches do you believe to be important to your institution or our profession? At what point has your project moved from your own agency to a larger consortial environment, and why?
  • Where do you think ALA could make a difference? Have your issues been legal (dealing with copyright, for instance), technical (defining file type standards), policy (guiding documents), political within your institution or region, and/or financial (you just need more money)? Or have you found new concerns worth noting?
  • A contact email and phone if we have questions.

Our subgroup will then review the responses, meet to discuss them at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference, and then select a few key studies and issues for further examination. It is our plan to share our findings and recommendations broadly, concluding our work by the 2013 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle.

Thank you for your assistance in this important investigation.

Jamie LaRue, chair, Digital Content Working Group, and director, Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries

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Posted in OITP, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications

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Colombian Delegates Visit ALA Washington Office

Posted on May 24, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Last week, Marijke Visser (Assistant Director, ALA Office for Information Technology Policy) and I had the pleasure of hosting a delegation of librarians from Colombia. These librarians are participants in the International Visitor Leadership Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, and they are all involved in overall management and policymaking in both government and private libraries in Colombia.

Colombian Librarians

OITP Staffers Alan Inouye (pictured second from left) and Marijke Visser (pictured third from left) with Colombian librarian delegates.

Last week, Marijke Visser (Assistant Director, ALA Office for Information Technology Policy) and I had the pleasure of hosting a delegation of librarians from Colombia. These librarians are participants in the International Visitor Leadership Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, and they are all involved in overall management and policymaking in both government and private libraries in Colombia.

The State Department outlined specific objectives for the visit. Delegates came to the ALA Washington Office to:

  • Explore the role and functions of libraries and information specialists in U.S. society;
  • Learn about the latest advances in how information technology is being used in libraries, including online and digital services;
  • Examine how U.S. libraries are reaching out to local communities, including the use of volunteers and outreach to children and underserved populations; and
  • Learn about public/private partnerships and cultivating donor support.

We enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion on these topics. Some of the time was devoted to explaining how ALA itself works and whether anything learned in the U.S. might be applicable to Colombia. Not surprisingly, a goodly portion of our time together focused on the future—which means digital content, services, and technology—and how libraries are evolving to meet the opportunities and challenges presented by the knowledge revolution.

Although the purpose of the visit was to provide information to the Colombian librarians, we also learned from the experience. In particular, it was striking how their issues and challenges parallel ours in so many ways… and now we are quite intrigued with Colombia and have to figure out a way to visit them!

Alan Inouye
Office for Information Technology Policy Director, ALA

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Advocacy Spotlight: Brandy Hamilton Uses Passion for Documentaries and Storytelling to Support Libraries

Posted on May 24, 2012 by | Leave a comment
Library Advocate Brandy Hamilton

Library Advocate Brandy Hamilton

Brandy Hamilton is the public policy chair for the North Carolina Library Association and the regional library manager at the East Regional Library in Knightdale, Wake County, NC. Hamilton coordinated the North Carolina group of the 2012 National Library Legislative Day event in Washington, D.C., helping the advocacy team earn the distinction of being the largest state group to participate this year. Learn about how this 13-year library veteran is working with the NC Library Advocacy Taskforce to support libraries by collecting personal stories and using videos to influence legislators.

How did you get involved with library advocacy?

Advocacy has been one of those things that I went into because someone asked me for help. In 2009, I was invited to participate in National Library Legislative Day. For the next few years, I learned advocacy skills by observing and participating. I had three years under my belt before I was elected earlier this year as one of the spokespeople for the North Carolina Library Association and I took the reins as the state coordinator. It was a little intimidating at first, but the more you get involved, the more your passion for things grows.

“We’ve worked to get personal library stories on the website because we want legislators and community members to see the emotional connection people have with libraries.”

How do you work with your grassroots team to advocate for libraries?

This year, the North Carolina Library Association created an advocacy team called the NC Library Advocate Taskforce, which is an ad hoc group of the state association. Our group joined various library organizations across the state to create the NC Library Advocacy Taskforce website in order to advocate better for libraries. This year, we’ve worked to get personal library stories on the website because we want legislators and community members to see the emotional connection people have with libraries. We also wanted to show them how libraries support workforce development and job creation. Our goal is to get stories from each congressional district. The stories are coming mostly from library patrons. For example, one library patron came in to a library for a writing workshop, and got the courage to write her own story, which turned into a bestseller. You can read stories like hers on our website. We’ve recently started creating two-page brochures out of the stories.

Continue reading →

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Posted in Advocacy Spotlight, Grassrooots & Advocacy, Washington Office News

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Funding Cuts Got You Down? 10 Insider Tactics for Impacting the Funding Debate (for the Better!)

Posted on May 24, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Are you dealing with funding cuts in your community? At your school? Are you frustrated with council members, legislators, administrators and others who do not understand the value you bring to the community? In this online session you’ll learn 10 insider tactics for effective influence that will increase your library’s perceived value, as well as demonstrate why you are one of the best investments around. And if 10 aren’t enough, you’ll get 10 more at the ALA annual meeting, particularly as they relate to the campaign season, which is an ideal time to capture everyone’s attention. More about the ALA annual session here: http://ala12.scheduler.ala.org/node/1353, but, in the meantime, be sure to join us to start making a difference right away!

Title: ALA: Funding Cuts Got You Down? 10 Insider Tactics for Impacting the Funding Debate (for the Better!)

Date: Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM EDT

Register

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Posted in Funding, Grassrooots & Advocacy, Public Libraries, School Libraries

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