NCLIS Opposes Legislation to Restrict E-Rate (PDF; 50 KB)

“The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) today announced its concern about proposed legislation that will, if enacted, require all schools and libraries which receive federal funds to restrict access to digital social networking tools and online communities. Particularly affected, according the Commission Chair Beth Fitzsimmons of Ann Arbor, MI will be schools and libraries receiving discounted telecommunication services under the E-rate, the familiar program name of the extension of Universal Service authorized by Congress in the Telecommunication Act of 1996.
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Dr. Fitzsimmons noted, with the passage of DOPA, “wikis, blogs, and even Amazon.com and Wikipedia could be construed as ‘social networking sites,’ a situation which would have negative effects on learning and the access to information and knowledge required for learning. Indeed, even faculty who regularly use blogs and teachers who use webpage design in their instructional methods would be seriously hampered in their work.”

Source: U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 2:20 am and is filed under Libraries and Librarianship, Technology and Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.