ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 8, Number 6
January 15, 1999

In this issue:

E-rate Commitment Letters Sent to 1,300 More Libraries; ALA 
Welcomes News

Note: The following was a January 14 press release from the ALA 
Public Information Office (phone: 312-280-5042). 

The American Library Association (ALA) welcomed news that the 
Schools and Libraries Division (SLD) of the Universal Service 
Administrative Company (USAC) mailed an additional 1,346 letters 
on January 14 to libraries awarding E-rate discounts totaling just 
under $8 million dollars. 

"We congratulate the Schools and Libraries Division for 
recognizing it is critically important to get the E-rate discounts 
out to our nation's libraries," said ALA President Ann K. Symons.

"This special mailing acknowledges that libraries are a critical 
player in providing equitable access to the information 
superhighway.  We encourage all eligible libraries and schools to 
participate in the second round of applications now underway for 
the E-rate discounts," she added.  

According to the SLD, this special round of E-rate commitments 
brings to 18 percent the overall library share of E-rate 
commitments to date, and the library dollar share to 5 percent.  
Libraries represented about 17 percent of E-rate applicants and 
about 3 percent of total funding requests for 1998. The SLD began 
sending commitment letters in a series of mailings or "waves" at 
the end of November. There were only a few libraries in the first 
two "waves", 7 percent in the third "wave" and 13 percent in the 
fourth "wave." 

The SLD heard from ALA and many library advocates calling for a 
more equitable response to the library community leading to this 
special mailing for library applicants.  It is anticipated that 
the SLD has several more mailings to complete before all 30,000 
library and school applicants receive final responses to their 
first year E-rate applications, sometime in early February.

The SLD was previously organized as the Schools and Libraries 
Corporation (SLC).  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), 
ordered that, effective January 1, 1999, the E-rate program and 
its sister program for rural healthcare providers be merged with 
the Universal Service Administrative Company which administers the 
larger and long-standing universal service program. 

The American Library Association is continuing to monitor the E-
rate discounts and encourage libraries to apply for the second 
year of discounts. For more information contact Lynne Bradley, 
deputy director, ALA Washington Office, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., 
Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004. Telephone: 800-941-8478.  Fax: 
202-628-8419. E-mail: leb@alawash.org.

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ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, 
Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 
toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web 
site: http://www.ala.org/washoff.  Editor: Lynne E. Bradley; 
Managing Editor: Deirdre Herman; Contributors: Phyllis Albritton, 
Mary Costabile, Adam Eisgrau, Carol Henderson, Peter Kaplan, 
Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.