Category Archives: OITP

Doctoral Student to Serve as American Library Association’s Google Policy Fellow

Posted on April 20, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Google Policy FellowshipThe American Library Association (ALA) announced today that Derek Attig, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will serve as the organization’s 2012 Google Policy Fellow. Attig will spend 10 weeks this summer at the ALA office in Washington, D.C. working on technology and Internet policy issues.

As a Google Policy Fellow, Attig’s work will involve the future of libraries and the examination of new models for the physical infrastructure of libraries. His dissertation, titled “Here Comes the Bookmobile: Public Culture and the Shape of Belonging,” focuses on the role of bookmobiles in designing, building and contesting communities in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century.

Attig will work for the ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP), a unit of the organization that works to ensure the library voice in information policy debates and promote full and equitable intellectual participation by the public.
Derek Attig Photo
“The digital revolution both challenges and enables new opportunities for libraries’ ability to serve their communities,” said Alan Inouye, OITP Director. “We look forward to Mr. Attig’s contributions to help us map out the possibilities for new models and their implications for society and public policy.

“ALA has been a partner in the Google Policy Fellowship program from its inception five years ago. We appreciate the opportunity to connect students in library-related topics to national public policy, and the resulting additional capacity for our office.”

To learn more about Attig, visit www.bookmobility.org.

Jazzy Wright
Press Officer, American Library Association, Washington Office

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Posted in OITP, Public Libraries, Washington Office News

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…and the food was good

Posted on April 17, 2012 by | Leave a comment


Maybe it was the sea air. Maybe it was because I got out of town, all (well most) expenses paid. Maybe it was because the topic was NOT ebooks. In any case, the 16th Annual Berkeley Center for Law and Technology/Berkeley Technology Law Journal Symposium on Orphan Works and Mass Digitization: Obstacles & Opportunities was an engaging and successful event. For me, it was fun. There was relatively little controversy because people were not lobbying for advantage, but discussing the public policy implications of legislative and other solutions to the orphan works problem. Okay, maybe a little bit of head shaking and eye rolling, but evenhanded overall.

It was a little weird to enter the meeting room and see over 200 copyright geeks assembled. Over half were librarians, along with archivists, rights holders, users of information and copyright scholars. The presentations were compelling and provocative. I came away more convinced than ever that an orphan works legislative solution is unwarranted.

The orphan works “problem” often is not a problem at all, at least not under U.S. copyright law. Fair use allows us to use orphan works in ways that are not infringing for a host of reasons just by the very nature of the orphan work itself – obscure, not commercially viable, ripe for care and preservation. Moreover, the inability to find rights holders and pay a fee is the quintessential example of market failure, one of the reasons we have copyright exceptions in the first place.

So my policy solution to the orphan works problem is “leave well enough alone.” Those that want certainty through legislation and other fixes, reconsider the value of vagueness. With bright line solutions, we risk giving up flexibility in the law, and are likely to go down the collective licensing highway where fair users pay permission fees to licensing agents rather than to the true rights holder – who, after all, cannot be found.

David Hansen, Digital Library Fellow for Berkeley’s Digital Library Project wrote three instructive papers that prepared attendees for the symposium discussions. They are very good – read them.

The Berkeley Center of Law and Technology will provide video of the symposium in the next two weeks. Teasers — the photographers are in a dilemma, orphans are re-named hostages, and sometimes “who cares who has the rights?” is a rational question.

Carrie Russell
Director, Program on Public Access to Information
American Library Association

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Posted in Copyright, OITP, Washington Office News

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Senator Harkin calls for access to copyrighted works for print disabled

Posted on April 6, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Last week, Senator Harkin (D-IA) wrote a letter to President Obama to express his support for a “…international treaty to expand access to copyrighted information for people with disabilities around the world.”

In his letter, Senator Harkin explains,

Blind people and others with print disabilities now face daunting challenges in obtaining access to accessible formats of copyrighted works in many parts of the world. The barriers to such access are in part due to two different factors. First, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), many countries have inadequate or no statutory rights for people with disabilities regarding access to information. Second, most countries that do provide for exceptions in copyright for people with disabilities do not permit the export of copies of works in accessible formats to foreign countries, leading to costly duplication of efforts in an area where resources are limited. As a result, people with disabilities have very limited access to accessible formats of copyrighted works. These disparities are particularly severe for people living in developing countries, or for people who need to access works in different languages.

The ALA has long been engaged in advocating for equitable access to information for all, including those with print and other disabilities.  We continue to work with International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) to draw attention to the fact that this issue exists in this modern, technologically advanced 21st century.

It is shocking that here in our country only 5 percent of works published in the U.S. are available in formats accessible for people with print disabilities.  Just imagine the good it would do those in other countries that are even worse off if cross-border sharing of accessible content became a lawful reality.  That is why the ALA also works closely with the U.S. delegation comprised of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the U.S. Copyright Office, the U.S. Department of State and others to ensure equitable access rights here at a home and then promotes them internationally.

And, finally a quick aside – there are two of us here in the ALA Washington Office that proudly hail from the Hawkeye State. Ted, our Grassroots Coordinator is from Des Moines and I am from Albia, Iowa.  We are especially pleased that Senator Harkin is advocating on behalf of people with disabilities not only in Iowa, but around the world.

Corey Williams
Associate Director, Office of Government Relations
American Library Association

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Posted in accessibility, Copyright, OGR, OITP

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Disconnection: Part of a Balanced Information Diet

Posted on April 4, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Jessie Mannisto on the benefits of disconnection

After reading The Thinking Life: How to Survive in the Age of Distraction (Forni, Pier; St. Martin’s Press, 2011), I started thinking about the impact of technology on both my personal and working life. Like many people today I am seldom far from my computer, email or Droid. Even while reading for relaxation, I have a computer at hand to look things up, surf, and quickly respond to emails coming in. Soon it became apparent to me that that this experience was becoming more and more prevalent in our community, and it has evolved into a wider community discussion here at the Rochester Hills (Mich.) Public Library (RHPL).

I started out by writing my “From the Director” column in our library newsletter on Forni’s book. This was followed a book discussion of the New York Times bestseller Hamlet’s Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age by William Powers. The third piece of the puzzle came on March 29th when American Library Association (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) Research Associate Jessie L. Mannisto spoke at my library about her newly-released report Restoring Contemplation: How Disconnecting Bolsters the Knowledge Economy, released as OITP Perspectives No. 2.

Drawing on research that she began last summer as ALA’s 2011 Google Policy Fellow, Jessie examined the effects of ever-present technology and connectivity that most of us experience, in search of possible solutions for those who are overwhelmed by it. Modern technology brings many helpful, effective, and meaningful connections into our lives, but over-connection and the constant flood of information can be distracting and counterproductive.

Program attendees learned about research that indicates we are less productive than we think. “Multitasking is a big issue these days,” said Mannisto. “If you try to do too many things, you bump into a limit that’s built into your brain – it makes you more error-prone.” Balance is the key to reaping the benefits of technology while maintaining control over our lives. “Something that is helpful to ask is ‘why are you connected’? Each of us must decide the rules for our own information diet,” she said. Mannisto explained that a balanced information diet will allow for disconnected space while promoting information literacy and the capacity for analytical thought. She feels libraries can play an even more valuable role in promoting information literacy and helping customers discern gathering and processing information in the most effective ways.

RHPL librarian Sheila Konen commented that “the audience was definitely middle aged. It made us wonder if you needed to reach a certain level of maturity to appreciate the need for contemplation.”

I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to stop multi-tasking, but I find it reassuring that I’m not alone in my frustration and occasional desire to go into digital detox and go on a cruise.

Christine Lind Hage
Director, Rochester Hills Public Library
Chair, ALA Joint Selection Committee on Cutting-edge Services

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Posted in OITP, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications

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ALA supports FCC proposal to fund digital literacy training through public libraries

Posted on April 3, 2012 by | Leave a comment

The Library Triple Play
The American Library Association (ALA) yesterday filed comments (pdf) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) supporting its proposal to advance broadband adoption by low-income people through digital literacy training in our nation’s public libraries and schools.  After wide consultation with the library community, the ALA asserted six main points:

  • Digital literacy is vital to ensuring equal opportunity in a knowledge economy;
  • Public libraries are ideally positioned to support digital literacy training;
  • Public libraries—even those now doing digital literacy programs—need additional resources to meet demand for digital literacy training;
  • Any program designed to address digital literacy must have the flexibility to meet community needs and build library capacity;
  • It is appropriate to use savings from the FCC’s Universal Service Fund Lifeline program reforms to support digital literacy training and broadband adoption for low-income people; and
  • Funding for digital literacy training through libraries should be separate and distinct from the E-rate program and should be administered thusly.

As ALA OITP Fellow Bob Bocher wrote previously, the FCC’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking sought comment on who or what organizations should be involved in implementing a nationwide Digital Literacy program. This FCC action is an initial step in implementing Recommendation 9.3 in the National Broadband Plan, which calls for the federal government to initiate a Digital Literacy program.

“As trusted, community-based, noncommercial intermediaries with a long history of supporting literacy and learning, libraries are well-positioned to support this vital effort to help ensure digital inclusion and opportunity,” said Larra Clark, Director of the Program on Networks.

More specifically in its filing yesterday the ALA also:

  • Opposed limiting funding to libraries that do not already offer digital literacy training;
  • Proposed community level of poverty should be the first determinant for prioritizing applicants;
  • Sought additional funds to fully implement the program;
  • Opposed a proposed match requirement; and
  • Asked that FCC consult and collaborate with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the Chief Offices of State Library Agencies (COSLA) in developing the digital literacy program.

“My colleague Marijke Visser (OITP Assistant Director) and I would like to thank the library community, including state library staff; members of the OITP Digital Literacy Taskforce, E-rate Taskforce, Subcommittee on Telecommunications; colleagues in the ALA Washington Office and the many others who gave vital input and feedback into developing our positions on this important effort.”

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Posted in OITP, Public Libraries, School Libraries, Technology, the Internet, and Telecommunications

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