[OPLINLIST] eRate 2.0

[Knapp, Mandy]

I wanted to forward this message from ALA's Office of Technology Policy to you all. There are a lot of discussions lately on the future of the eRate program with the FCC.  Please email Marijke Visser at mvisser at alawash.org<mailto:mvisser at alawash.org> or Larra Clark at lclark at alawash.org<mailto:lclark at alawash.org> with responses:

Some of you may have begun to hear the words "E-rate 2.0" and wondered what that might mean for libraries. Maybe you read the New York Times story<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/technology/fund-that-subsidizes-internet-for-schools-should-expand-a-senator-says.html?_r=2&> that followed the Senate Commerce Committee's FCC oversight hearing.

Well, the writing is more than on the wall, and ALA is in active conversations with FCC staff - who are encouraging us to tell them what is most important to libraries and what most needs to change in the e-rate program. NOW (this week) is the time! Even though they can't confirm that a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is in the offing, one was projected last year and never arrived as other reforms were made in the Universal Service Fund.

We need your help. The program brings millions of dollars to public libraries each year-dollars that support telecommunications and information services critical to library service today. We need to communicate the value e-rate brings to libraries - and what we anticipate our future needs to be.

Here are five jumping off points to get the conversation started:
§  Tell us one (or more!) "before" and "after" e-rate story. What did e-rate enable that you wouldn't have been able to accomplish without this program? One library director, for instance, described how the library had to upgrade its bandwidth before it could effectively offer interactive online tutoring to students through the library. In another case, the library was blocking high-bandwidth websites because their connection was inadequate to support multiple users with multiple applications during peak after-school hours. Other city agencies on the shared municipal line were losing Internet access as library users flooded the shared connection.
§  How would life in your library be different WITHOUT e-rate? No streaming media? No videoconferencing? No wireless access? One library that increased bandwidth from 40Mbps to 100Mbps put it this way: "Because we get 80 percent E-rate discount, coupled with the new (citywide) contract, we think we can afford to do it. We couldn't keep the doors open without E-rate. It's so vital and important to us. Altogether it will cost $102,000 next year with E-rate, but would have been $600,000 without E-rate."
§  What do you see on the horizon for the library and its Internet-enabled services that will demand increased bandwidth and capacity? A new digital media lab with a need for upload speeds to be just as good as download speeds? Supporting library user access to electronic health records? Who will most benefit from these services (teens, unemployed, job-seekers, other city/county agencies, community partners)?
§  Given where libraries are today and where they are headed in the next 5-10 years, let's think into the future. If you could design an E-rate program for 2015 and beyond where would you start? What are the most important services that you would need to support? Would you keep anything from the current program?
§  Tell us one (or more!) example of how e-rate supported Internet connectivity has supported K12 student learning and achievement. Online homework help? How about college-age and adult learners? Online GED prep? Distance learning?

The clock is ticking, and we are reaching out and doing our own research on all fronts. One FCC staffer put it this way: Tell us your "State of the Union" story. You know, the one where the person is sitting next to the First Lady, and the President is telling how a federal program helped - or how a federal program is needed to make life better.

Again, please email mvisser at alawash.org<mailto:mvisser at alawash.org> or lclark at alawash.org<mailto:lclark at alawash.org> with responses. If emailing, please use the subject line: "Erate2.0."

Thank you and take care,
[Description: cid:image001.jpg at 01CC60D3.E1B03810]

Mandy Knapp
Library Consultant
274 E. 1st Avenue
Columbus, OH 43201
Tel: 614-466-1710
Toll Free: 800-686-1532 (Ohio only)
Fax: 614-466-3584
www.library.ohio.gov<http://www.library.ohio.gov/>
Share Your Story at http://library.ohio.gov/state-librarian/share-your-story
Tell us how a State Library service or resource helped you or your library.

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