ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 10, Number 26 April 4, 2001 In this issue: E-rate and Filtering Focus of April 4th House Hearing Carolyn Caywood, Bayside Area Librarian from the Virginia Beach Public Library System, testified before the House Energy/Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet on April 4th. The hearing, described as part of the subcommittee's oversight of the E-rate and the new Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) law focused on the E-rate and filtering. In addition to Caywood, the witness list included: Bruce Taylor, National Law Center for Children & Families, Marvin Johnson, ACLU, Laura Morgan, Chicago Public Library, Susan Getgood, SurfControl, and Chris Ophus, FamilyConnect. Caywood emphasized four points in her testimony: 1) Responsibility for making decisions about Internet usage policies and procedures should always be made at the local level within the bounds of the Constitution. Library and school boards and their communities have this responsibility, which they are already exercising everyday. They are best equipped to make decisions based upon the needs, values and resources in their respective communities 2) Technology cannot substitute for an informed community, effective librarians and teachers, educated families and trained Internet users 3) Resources devoted to education about Internet usage are, in the long run, far more effective in protecting our children than having Federally mandated filters installed at local expense, especially when that mandate removes options for patron choices about using filters 4) Filters just do not work the way the CIPA law assumes Caywood also expressed confidence in libraries and librarians, saying, "I want to applaud our Nation's libraries and librarians.no profession is more vitally concerned about children and their safety, development and growth than our nation's librarians." Bruce Taylor argued on behalf of the National Law Center for Children & Families that the CIPA law is constitutional and that filtering companies can work with schools and libraries to make their products and contracts flexible. Taylor also asserted that the filtering criteria can be based upon local needs and blocking criteria and that filters can be easily turned off and on. ACLU attorney Marvin Johnson described many of the Constitutional issues surrounding the CIPA law and was asked by Congressional representatives numerous questions such as whether the ACLU supported adults getting pornography at taxpayers expense at public libraries. Attorneys Taylor and Johnson got the bulk of the questions from the subcommittee members. Laura Morgan, architecture librarian at the Main Library at Chicago Public Library, described her support for filtering in public libraries. She argues that unfiltered terminals where patrons can leave screens of pornography visible to the public and employees is a matter of sexual harassment and creates a hostile work environment. Getgood (Cyberpatrol) and Ophus (FamilyConnect) argued that filters do work and are meeting the customer needs every day. Getgood emphasized that, while there is a strong market for filtering and blocking software - and that the software really works - there is no need for a Federal mandate requiring filtering in schools and libraries. Ophus believes that the opponents of filtering should stop criticizing filtering software as not working or being under- or over-broad. He outlined his criticism of the Consumer Reports article on filters (March, 2001 as biased and unfair, in part because it focused on software for consumers rather than the "industrial strength" versions used by schools and libraries. (You may link to the Consumer Reports article from the CIPA Headlines page at: http://www.ala.org/cipa/headlines.html.) Questions from the Subcommittee members ranged from asking for more details from the company representatives about whether filtering software really works to asking opponents of CIPA (Caywood and Johnson) whether they had children. Reps. Chip Pickering (R-MS), one of the sponsors of CIPA, emphasized his continued support for the new law and his confidence that it would not be overturned in the court proceedings recently started by ALA, the ACLU and others. (See http://www.ala.org/CIPA for details on the proceedings.) Pickering quoted from ALA's Library Bill of Rights and argued that the ALA and ACLU have radical agendas that are not in keeping with the interests of mainstream Americans. Morgan and Johnson were asked about the sexual harassment issue. Morgan restated her concerns over the unfiltered use of terminals at Chicago Public Library. Speaking for herself and not for the Chicago Public Library, Morgan claimed that exposure to pornography happened all the time at Chicago Public and elsewhere and was a serious problem. Several reporters asked some of the witnesses why the hearing was scheduled at this time. When they were arranging the hearing, some Congressional staff indicated that it was to have a balanced overview of the new law. Meanwhile, the FCC has not promulgated its regulations to implement CIPA which is supposed to become effective April 20th. Regulations are expected any day from the FCC on the E-rate portion of CIPA. The Institute of Museum and Library Services and the U.S. Department of Education are also expected to publish "guidance" for applicants to comply with their respective portions of CIPA. Since a hearing of this nature was not held during the last Congress when CIPA was passed, some observers described the hearing as either "too late" or "too early." Library witness Caywood said she hoped that the hearing would establish a renewed dialogue to help formulate an improved policy, although representatives like Pickering, Largent and Shimkus were fully supportive of CIPA as an effective tool to protect children. ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. 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. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Mary Costabile, Peter Kaplan, Miriam Nisbet and Claudette Tennant. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell and Saundra Shirley. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.