================================================================= ALAWON Volume 7, Number 88 ISSN 1069-7799 July 30, 1998 American Library Association Washington Office Newsline In this issue: (113 lines) - COMMERCE DEPARTMENT REPORT SHOWS INCREASE IN COMPUTER GAP BETWEEN INFORMATION "HAVES" AND "HAVE NOTS" _________________________________________________________________ COMMERCE DEPARTMENT REPORT SHOWS INCREASE IN COMPUTER GAP BETWEEN INFORMATION "HAVES" AND "HAVE NOTS" The Department of Commerce on July 28 released its second report on U.S. household penetration of telephones, personal computers, and online services. The report, "Falling Through the Net II: New Data on the Digital Divide," shows that the gap between the information "haves" and "have nots" widened in the last three years. Black and Hispanic Americans lag even further behind white Americans in computer ownership and on-line access despite significant growth in computer ownership and overall computer usage in America. "Too many Americans are not able to take part in the growing digital economy," said Commerce Secretary William M. Daley. "The growing trend of information 'haves' and 'have nots' is alarming. We must continue to reach out to under served communities through programs like the e-rate and TIIAP grants and aggressively work with community and business leaders to seek solutions to this problem." The e-rate was mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and provides discounted telecommunications and Internet access rates to schools and libraries. The Telecommunications and Information Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), was established in 1994 and is a merit-based grant program that provides communities with innovative projects funding for computer equipment, training, planning and evaluation, and dissemination of project findings. The report shows that the "digital divide" between certain groups of Americans has increased between 1994 and 1997 so that there is now an even greater disparity in penetration levels among some groups. "The data demonstrates that there are still pockets of 'have nots' among low-income, minorities, and the young, particularly in rural areas and central cities,"said Secretary Daley. Findings of the report include: * About 93.8% of households have telephones; 36.6% have personal computers; 18.6% have online access. (Table 1) * While overall household ownership of personal computers has grown by over 12 percentage points, a 52% increase over 1994, ownership for households earning less than $35,000/year is still below the national average. * Computer ownership for households in rural and central city areas is below the national average of 36.6% (Table 10) * The gap between computer ownership in Black, non-Hispanic households and White, non-Hispanic households has increased from 16.8 percentage points in 1994 to 21.5 percentage points in 1997. * The gap between computer ownership in Hispanic households and white, non-Hispanic households has increased from 14.8 percentage points in 1994 to 21.4 percentage points in 1997. "Falling Through the Net II" underscores President Clinton's commitment to connect all American's to the information infrastructure," said Larry Irving, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for communications and information and administrator of NTIA. "The data shed greater insight on recent trends in telephone and computer usage, which should assist policy makers as they consider steps to connect all Americans to the Information Superhighway." The report updates information from the 1994 "Falling Through the Net" report also issued by the Department of Commerce. Copies of the report are available on NTIA's web site at http://www.ntia.doc.gov, or by calling Matt Wallach, NTIA Public Affairs, at 202-482-3999. Secretary Daley's press releases and speeches are available at http://www.doc.gov/opa. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) serves as the principal adviser to the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international communications and information issues and represents the Executive Branch before Congress, other Federal agencies, foreign governments and international organizations. _________________________________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo 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 J. Magpantay All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. =================================================================