================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 31 ISSN 1069-7799 May 6, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (72 lines) FCC DECISION ON DISCOUNTS FOR LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS TO BE BROADCAST ON THE INTERNET _________________________________________________________________ FCC DECISION ON DISCOUNTS FOR LIBRARIES AND SCHOOLS TO BE BROADCAST ON THE INTERNET ALA is eagerly expecting a decision tomorrow from the Federal Communications Commission on discounted telecommunication rates for libraries and schools. This final rulemaking is in response to the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Snowe-Rockefeller Amendment which designated libraries and schools as universal providers eligible for such discounts on telecommunications rates. The FCC is expected to announce how large the discounts will be and to what services they will apply. On Wednesday, May 7 at 9:30 a.m. ET the open meeting of the FCC will be broadcast on the Internet by Democracy.Net, a project of the Center for Democracy and Technology and Voters Telecommunications Watch. A transcript, live audio and still pictures will be available. The address for Democracy.Net is: http://www.democracy.net RealAudio software, required for the audio portion of the broadcast, is available free of charge from Progressive Networks at: http://www.realaudio.com/products/player/ For updated information on the FCC's education-related policies and initiatives, visit the following sources: http://www.ala.org/oitp/univserv.html -- ALA's Universal Service Page http://www.fcc.gov/learnnet/ -- FCC's LearnNet http://www.itc.org/edlinc/discounts -- Education and Library Networks Coalition, of which ALA is a member ALA will provide further analysis of the FCC decision as soon as details become available. _________________________________________________________________ ALAWON is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. To subscribe, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc @ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. Visit our Web site at http://www.alawash.org. ALA Washington Office 202.628.8410 (V) 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, #403 202.628.8419 (F) Washington, DC 20004-1701 800.941.8478 (V) Lynne E. Bradley, Editor Deirdre Herman, Managing Editor Contributors: Andrew Magpantay Aleck Johnson All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================