================================================================= ALAWON Volume 6, Number 42 ISSN 1069-7799 June 4, 1997 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (107 lines) VIDEOCONFERENCE ON TELECOM DISCOUNTS STRESSES NEED FOR INVOLVEMENT FROM LIBRARIANS _________________________________________________________________ VIDEOCONFERENCE ON TELECOM DISCOUNTS STRESSES NEED FOR INVOLVEMENT FROM LIBRARIANS One of the largest audiences ever assembled for a PBS videoconference participated in the live satellite event, "Maximizing Your E-Rate: Making the Most of New Telecommunications Discounts for Schools and Libraries," on June 3 from 1-2:30pm ET. The videoconference discussed the Federal Communications Commission's long-awaited ruling on discounted telecommunications services for libraries and schools, which was released on May 7. The ruling will provide significant discounts on basic telephone service, advanced telecommunications services, Internet services, and internal connections necessary to enable students and library users to access the information superhighway. Discounts range from 20% to 90%, based on the eligibility for free and reduced price school lunch and the cost of telecommunications in the school or library's service area. The discounts will become available on January 1, 1998. Officials from the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. Department of Education, National Exchange Carrier Association, Florida Public Service Commission and the U.S. Department of Commerce were among the panelists for the discussion and question and answer sessions. Charlie Parker, legislative director for the State of Florida library, stressed three things that libraries should be doing. First, libraries need to have their technology plans in place and ready to go. Plans need to be reviewed by the state library agency or another as-yet-undetermined agency. Second, libraries should have their technology contracts in place and be ready to apply the discounts to those contracts. Third, libraries will have to certify the level of school lunch participation in their service area. Julia Johnson, chairman of the Florida Public Service Commission, emphasized that libraries and schools need to be active in the universal service process at the state level. The window of opportunity for input may be very small, and libraries and schools need to take advantage of the chances they have, she said. Johnson added that a state must adopt the FCC rules in order for libraries and schools to take advantage of the discounts. She suggested that libraries and schools ask their state public utilities commissions the "how, when and who" questions in order to find out how to get involved. 1. How will your state implement the FCC's May 7 discount ruling? 2. When will the state public utilities commission be examining the issue? 3. Who can be involved in the proceeding? Some state public utilities commission proceedings accept input only from commission staff. In these states libraries and schools will have to go through some additional steps in order to participate. Linda Roberts from the U.S. Department of Education suggested that those who do not yet have a technology plan should make contact with those who have already been through the technology planning process, such as a local university, school district, or state education agency. The Department of Education also provides information on technology planning; they can be reached at 1-800-USA-LEARN. For more information on the videoconference, visit PBS at http://www.pbs.org/learn. PBS will be hosting a discussion on the topic, with answers from many of the conference participants. Additional information on the universal service discounts is also available from the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy at http://www.ala.org/oitp/univserv.html or from the Education and Library Networks Coalition at http://www.itc.org/edlinc/discounts. _________________________________________________________________ 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. =================================================================