ALA WO still speaking up for the Public Interest
Ars Technica has cited pieces of ALA Washington Office’s comments to the FCC (regarding Comcast’s actions toward BitTorrent) highlighting how “libraries now provide an enormous stream of legal digital material to millions of patrons, including huge collections of pictures and music.”
Why is ALA WO even getting involved? one may ask… The closing statement in ALA WO’s comment addresses how libraries “need to be assured that they will be able to access legitimate Internet content or use Internet services or applications without fear or concerns that such access or use will be blocked or degraded by any entity with the means and control to do so.”
Personally, the ALA Washington Office is a large part of why I rejoin ALA every year (to the tune of >$340/year). Policy battles are where the fight for network access is and libraries are right at the forefront. The public at large isn’t really tracking the debate, but I’m glad we (libraries & ALA) are in there shaping (or at least informing) the debate.