ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline
Volume 8, Number 76
July 28, 1999

In this issue:

[1] ALAWON Filtered from E-mail as "Business Inappropriate"
[2] ALA Files Comments on NTIA Proposal 

[1] ALAWON Filtered from E-mail as "Business Inappropriate"

In the July 22 ALAWON (v8, n74), we reported that Rep. Ernest 
Istook (R-OK) had introduced H.R. 2560, the Child Protection Act 
of 1999. The bill may be offered as an amendment to appropriations 
bills that will likely be acted on this fall.   

Using language provided in the bill, we said that H.R. 2560 would 
require libraries and schools -- as a condition of receiving 
federal funds from any federal agency for the acquisition or 
operation of computers -- to install filters to protect children 
from certain material on the Internet.  An action alert encouraged 
library advocates to invite members of Congress into libraries to 
see local Internet services firsthand during the upcoming 
congressional recess (August 9 - September 7). 

We received a return notification from at least one ALAWON 
subscriber's e-mail provider stating that the ALAWON was 
"electronically scanned and found to be business inappropriate." 
We have contacted the provider and await their response.  If any 
other ALAWON subscribers did not receive this or any other ALAWON, 
they are archived at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon

[2] ALA Files Comments on NTIA Proposal 

On July 22 ALA filed comments with the Federal Communications 
Commission (FCC) in response to the possible requirement that all 
applicants for E-rate discounts have acceptable use policies 
governing their Internet access.  The FCC's June 23 Request for 
Comment was based on an April 7 proposal from the U.S. Department 
of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information 
Administration.  

ALA made the following points in its filing:

1. The decision to have use policies should not be imposed by the 
federal government and, in particular, should not be made part of 
the E-rate discount application process for libraries and schools;

2. If policies are to be required, applicants should be given 
maximum flexibility in establishing their form and content with no 
federal involvement in decisions on content;

3. Any requirements should not place additional administrative 
burdens on what is already a complex application and 
administrative process;

4. Any such requirements should not be applied retroactively to 
the Year 2 funding process; and

5. The range of possible methods for administering or enforcing 
use policies is so broad that they should not be dictated by a 
federal program.

The full comments are available in PDF format at 
http://www.ala.org/oitp/fcc072299.pdf

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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:  Sally Benson, Mary 
Costabile, Carol Henderson, Peter Kaplan, Carrie Russell, Saundra 
Shirley, Claudette Tennant and Rick Weingarten.