Yay!!! As libraries, and library people, we are VERY invested in preserving Net Neutrality!! We need a free and fast internet to provide service to our patrons and community members!! Browse around our website for all kinds of articles about the topic to get fully up to speed (and to explore the beginnings of my rage over this issue).
Check out this article with more information about the latest news in this continuing saga:
From the ALA:
“At the 2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting, ALA Council adopted the statement “Net Neutrality: An Intellectual Freedom Issue.” Written by the ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee, the document affirms that Net Neutrality is essential to the promotion and practice of intellectual freedom and the free exercise of democracy.
The document’s origins date back to June, when ALA President Jim Neal requested a Net Neutrality position paper written from an intellectual freedom perspective. On Dec. 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal Net Neutrality; the repeal will take effect on April 23, 2018. The Intellectual Freedom Committee structured the paper to respond to arguments in the anticipated fight to preserve Net Neutrality.
“The Net Neutrality statement is timeless, reflecting the core values of ALA and its members,” said IFC Chair Helen Adams.
The document makes clear connections between Net Neutrality and libraries, democracy, intellectual freedom, and equitable access. It also recognizes the work of the ALA Washington Office and other ALA advocacy efforts to defend Net Neutrality.
“There are many forms of censorship. Tilting the playing field toward a few players is one of them,” said Office for Intellectual Freedom Director James LaRue.
The statement is endorsed by the Committee on Legislation, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, Committee on Professional Ethics, the American Association of School Librarians, Library Information Technology Association and IFC Privacy Subcommittee.”
I’m not much of a fast food eater (living downwind from a fast food beef processing plant for a few years will put you off it forever!); but I am a BIG fan of net neutrality!! We have run several articles here about the importance of Net Neutrality to libraries. (SPOILER: It’s really important!) Here is a recent one.
So I did laugh out loud when I saw Burger King’s video explaining net neutrality by using Whoppers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltzy5vRmN8Q
Watch to see people losing their minds when they realize that paying extra will get Whoppers right now, while people who pay just the standard prices are waiting up to 20 minutes. (I can’t tell you how much I hope these people are actors!) And it really does give a very clear and immediate sense of just what losing Net Neutrality means for consumers of the internet. We may not be able to scream at our internet providers for not giving us decent access to our websites anymore, but oh will we want to do so!!
Is this another example of a big company shamelessly promoting a social issue to raise their corporate profile. Sure, probably. I’m thinking more about Burger King this week than I have in the last five years. But it’s a cute video, and it does help to explain something that is important to libraries. Are you going to share it with your patrons? I don’t know – it would be great if there were other educational materials.
But as you ponder all the larger issues around it – click on the video, giggle while you watch it, and then get mad as heck and tell your legislators YOUR LIBRARY NEEDS NET NEUTRALITY!!!!! (Details on doing that are here.)
Well, as you know – we had a pretty devastating setback on net neutrality. The FCC repealed it a couple of weeks ago. We have been talking about this here on the blog, and on our social media, because this issue is very important for libraries.
(You can scroll down to the end for action steps; or take the scenic route through the whole story!)
Net neutrality means that you can go online, on any device using any internet vendor (Verizon, Spectrum, etc) and you get just the same speed as anyone else. You can go to whatever site you want, use whatever browser you want, and do whatever you want when you are there. Your mom might restrict use; but Verizon or Spectrum can’t.
Now that’s gone.
Here is a small example of what that could mean. I have a Verizon phone, and like many people I’m on it all the time doing tons of things. Verizon owns Yahoo, so it would now be perfectly allowable for Verizon to only allow me to go to Yahoo. If I want to use Google (because I have Gmail), Verizon could just say “Nope! No Google for you!”
More likely, they would create a special “Google Package” or something: for the low, low price of Whatever They Want dollars a month, I can access my Gmail and search for fun library stuff on Google. For a slightly higher price, I could probably also watch YouTube videos – as they are owned by Google and obviously would not be just accessible through Verizon’s standard service.
Maybe I want to access Google Classroom tools, because I need them for work. Clearly, just getting there is out of the question through a Verizon connection without some extra payments. Hopefully schools will work out a payment plan to allow students and teachers to use it at work, but you will have to figure out your own payment plan if you want to use it at home.
(Keep going past the break. The story gets so much worse for a while – but then your positive action steps wrap it up!)
Continue reading Net neutrality is sinking fast: Now what do we do?
We are very interested in library advocacy here at CMLE HQ, and we know that not everyone feels comfortable speaking up to their stakeholders, legislators, or community members about the great work you do in libraries.
The FCC is getting ready to vote on whether to end net neutrality.
Let’s say that in the tone it deserves: OMG!! ON DEC. 14, SOME PEOPLE YOU NEVER ELECTED ARE GOING TO DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR YOUR ACCESS TO THE INTERNET!!!!! IT’S DEFINITELY TIME TO FREAK OUT ABOUT THIS!!!!!!
Yeah, that’s right. Some guy who used to work for Verizon is now going to get to decide whether you have to pay Verizon to access the internet. Let that sink in for a moment – then absolutely return to freaking the heck out!
You’ve heard these words before – they are all over the news and social media. It sounds like one of those complicated issues that would be okay to just nod and say “Oh, yeah, sure – that stuff” and go on with your day.
In a very brief nutshell, net neutrality means that we can access the Internet any way we want. We can zip around and look at stuff we like. We can choose what sites we look at, and what we do there. While speed is not always perfect, at least it does chug along pretty quickly. Remember accessing the Internet back in the 90s? When an image would load a pixel or a line at a time on your screen?? I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK TO THE DARK AGES!!!
I have a Verizon phone. It’s fine. I use it to look at Google several dozen times a day. But!! Verizon owns Yahoo. If Verizon owns my access to the Internet, they can easily (oh, so easily) announce that everyone on Verizon’s cell coverage is now using Yahoo.
This is just one teeny example of what will happen if companies suddenly own your ability to access the Internet.
Take a moment to think how much further this will go – and then absolutely freak out. Because it’s worse than whatever you are thinking.
Remember life 20 years ago? We didn’t have constant Internet access. But life has changed! How many of us bank online – and may have to pay AT&T to get access to our money or to pay our bills? How many of us download books to listen to in the car? How many people stream really fun podcasts? Who depends on Amazon to deliver great stuff to you? Or Spotify to bring great music to you? How many of you email your family? Update your Facebook page with photos of kids and pets so your friends can keep up? Anyone play games on your phone? Have Google reading you turn by turn directions when you drive someplace new? Get access to the latest research for academic papers? Read your news online? Anyone using Duolingo to learn a new language? Anyone slightly addicted to the 24/7 live stream of the Kitten Academy?? (it’s not just me, right??) Maybe you want to watch Netflix or Hulu – but Spectrum owns your access to the Internet, and they have no economic interest in you leaving their cable channels. You might be able to get to Netflix, but it may t a k e a r e a l l y l o o o o o n g t i m e t o g e t s o m e t h i n g.
Think about the work you do every day. What do patrons do in your library? How much of it involves being able to access the internet?
This is not fantasy. This is already happening in other countries. Today. Now.
You need net neutrality for yourself.
You need net neutrality for your library.
You need net neutrality for your community.
But, you ask:
WHAT CAN I, A HUMBLE LIBRARY EMPLOYEE, DO TO STOP THIS DEBACLE????
It’s shockingly simple.
You go tell the FCC how much this will damage you, your library, your patrons, and your community. Or, just pick one of those things. The important thing is to GO SAY SOMETHING!!
WEBSITE: https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express
Open that link on a computer, not a mobile device.
Speak from your heart. Identify yourself as a library employee, if you want to. Tell them about a patron who used the internet today to find a wonderful book, to access their veteran’s benefits, to talk with their grand-kids who live across the country. Tell them about the training you do to help people use the Internet. Tell them how much you love accessing any site that makes you happy.
Remember to ask for the specific thing you want: Free and fast access to the Internet!!
Deep breath in; deep breath out.
Just go back and follow the directions. Share your voice. Be heard! Speak for your community.
Verizon, AT&T, Spectrum – these companies depend on us getting scared, or assuming someone else will handle it so that everything turns out okay.
They have lots of high priced lobbyists who cheerfully offer to write regulations that make them rich. It’s their jobs. Neat in some situations; but here that just means one thing: “Give us money or you get nothing. Enjoy your blocked and throttled Internet libraries!! You guys don’t have big budgets to pay us, so good luck with whatever scraps we throw to you!”
(I’m paraphrasing. But that is the message, if not the exact wording.)
You don’t have high priced lobbyists. You just have us. We just have you.
No pressure here, but…the fate of library service as you know it depends on a free access to the Internet.
So, yeah. It’s kind of a big deal.
If you contact legislators and stakeholders all the time: excellent. Tell them about your feelings on net neutrality.
If you have never contacted a legislator, or never wanted to raise your voice, or to get involved – this is not the time to be shy or neutral. We need you. You need the Internet. (How else are you going to read these fun blog posts? Or download our Books and Beverages book group podcast???)
Why are you still here????
(Then, forward this post to every single person you know!!!)
Award yourself one Official Superhero point for helping to save the Internet for us all!
