it didn't make it to manassas before the battle but what abraham lincoln knew about what was going on at the battle of first manassas was the result of andrew carnegie's work. so it's appropriate that we are talking about libraries, about carnegie's contribution in making libraries what they were in the 19th century and we come back to networks. that is why e-rate modernization is so important. the program that we have is called the schools and libraries program. sub i've also started calling it in libraries and schools program so we made sure we recognize and emphasize the important contribution of each of those institutions. so what are we doing? we are moving from supporting

20th century technology to 21st century high-speed broadband technology. it's a reallocation of resourcef resources are never easy and never pleasant but they are essential if we are to keep pushing forward. we are moving to broadband to the person at the library. it's not just an external connection but it's how do you get using wi-fi to the individual in a library? we are bringing the application and administrative process into the 21st century as well by using the same kind of ride band tools and we are focusing on fiscal responsibility. the key is not just more money although if more money is warranted we will deal with that

but the key is money well spent by encouraging consortia, by creating longer support. so you can have longer contracts with lower rates and by establishing a system of reference phrasing so people know what is a fair price? we don't expect librarians to be telecom experts and able to go out there and haggle with telecom companies so how do we help in that regard? also they have limited pilot programs that test new approaches that could benefit all. so susan we are really grateful to you and to imls for launching this dialogue today. the timing is perfect. our public notice is out now and we will shortly be releasing our plan for 2015 and forward.

there is an incredible distinguished list of participants that you have lined up today but i want to just return -- before i sit down i want to return to historic roots for a minute. and you're carnegie built 25 libraries in a public track of partnership in the 19th century. he defined information access for millions and millions of people for over a century. we stand on the precipice of being able to have the same kind of seminole and packed on the flow of information and ideas in the 21st century.

that is why the work that you all are doing is so important. that's why they were warm in modernization of the e-rate program is so essential and that is why today's hearing, the kinds of topics that you are going to explore are so helpful to those of us who are trying to work on just how do we seize on this incredible moment of historic significance. thank you for all that you are doing. [applause] >> thank you so much chairman wheeler. that was inspiring and i just have to say that i know librarians don't particularly want to haggle with telecom folks but we haggle with everything that we do and we do a pretty good job. so librarians out there or read pretty good hagler's? all rights just to set the record straight. also we are excited to have

chris from the gates foundation and i have to say the gates foundation when i talk about andrew carnegie and i often talk about andrew carnegie when i speak i also characterized bill and melinda gates and the gates foundation is our 21st century andrew carnegie so libraries have been very lucky to have the wonderful public-private partnerships over the years. so i'm now very pleased to introduce thomas power the chief of staff of the commerce department's national telecommunications and information administration who is currently on detail to the office of science and technology policy at the white house is deputy chief technology officer for telecommunications. mr. power provides managerial and policy support for a wide range of agency activities including internet policy spectrum and recovery act broadband grants program and is one of the first individuals who really encouraged us to have this hearing and make it happen

so welcome tom. [applause] >> thank you susan. good morning everyone and thank you imls for having this hearing. surreal thrill to share that dais with chairman wheeler. he is maybe my favorite policy person in d.c.. he is doing such a great job. second favorite. i worked in the white house. you never know who's watching. so you know we are really trying to help through the connected program and the e-rate program and chairman wheeler has identified some of the ways forward that we really recognize the work ,-com,-com ma the real work happens at the local level at imls and the other organizations represented here. my main message is to thank you for all the work you do. for some of this is kind of

personal. i can tell you that my mother for 40 years was in elementarelementar y school years was an elementary schoolteacher and librarian at the school and when she retired the local newspaper in her hometown did an article about her and said one question was how have kids changed in 40 years? she said kids are kids. they don't change much but one thing that has changed his parents seem to have lost the focus on the idea that kids need to come to school to prepare to learn. school is not just the island or education that can happen and the education stops. the whole community has to be focused on education. it's the home and the school and library. that is why the work of the library is so important and i don't have to tell you that. surreal community effort. we learned this through the btop program where he served for a couple of years before moving into the white house. he found the strongest applications were the ones that have the whole support of the

community the library to school the business community the mayor the city council the counties the governor the ones where we saw the community coming together to support the application were the ones we knew at the best chance of succeeding. we are really proud of the work of e. top did. my pal is out in the audience and if you get a chance hug her or high five for maybe. she and the team did such a great job with libraries and particular. btop has created public computer centers in over to the library locations involving thousands of workstations and i'm proud to announce three case studies published by an independent evaluation contractor that was high up it on the improvements and the effects that btop

program is having in three library systems in particular. you will see you can go on the ntia web site to pull this down. previously unemployed people received job offers after receiving the job centers at public libraries. in michigan public computer facilities are estimated to save the users more than 160,000 hours per year for a time and in texas public computer centers including over 120 library locations have provided nearly 850,000 training hours to support digital literacy and enabling people to search for jobs and housing on line connect with the families and other countries in all the important uses the chairman wheeler referred to. we will be putting the blog up today in the case studies. we know there is more to be done and we know the needs of libraries. i read a statistic that 60% labor is reported they are the

only source of free internet access in their communities and we have seen that image. the library is closed and the kids on the step looking at the wi-fi and people in the car with the heater going trying to connect. we can look at that as a glass half-full discouraging because the libraries are getting the sources they need but i tried to be encouraged by that. we are stimulating demand. we have the kids and adults on the steps in and the cars and that's a good sign. millions of americans are using the internet at their local libraries to study for degrees or certificates applied for jobs developed additional skills amber dissipate in civic affairs. i think libraries are truly centers of lifelong learning and of course they are available to all regardless of age income or disability. as chairman wheeler said for those who don't have computers at home they are essential but even for those who don't have computers at home if you are trying to study may be the home

environment isn't the best place to do it. we know that libraries are keeping things on the qt which is a good place for concentrating kids. thanks for maintaining the stability there. i started by telling you about my mother so i will finish by telling you about her mother. it was my grandmother. she was a teacher and she retired in got bored and went back to teaching. she retired again in she began to tutor and she gave her last tutoring lesson on her 90th birthday. that was enough. she never took a dime for tutoring. she just wanted to teach them the joy of teaching was all the compensation she wanted. a few weeks ago i was visiting with a cousin of mine who remembered my grandmother and she said one thing i remember was people would come to your own mother's house and she had looks over the place. if a child was with the visitors

the child would leap at the present in and the present with issa book. my grandmother would percentage at a way that at christmastime kids would get it book. the child thought they'd gone to disneyland. she had this enthusiasm that's just defused everything and had a lot of looks. she loves ferrying them especially with kids. she knew what my mom observed which is we all need to be in this together. education is not just in the school. set the home in the library and the entire community. chairman wheeler and i and others watching it started with chairman hans as tom said. we are going to keep doing what we can but we are depending on you. we know how hard you are working to make things happen at the local level. we are going to support you because we know it takes all of us to make this effort a success. thanks for having me here and have a great day.

thank you. [applause] >> okay thank you gentlemen. that was a great way to start and i'll ask our panel number one krista weiss is same parents anthony to join me here on the podium. first of all i would like to say thank you very much to chairman wheeler and to tom power for being with us. we are just really honored. now we are moving on to the program portion of -- or the panel discussion portion of our program and i want to remind everybody that this hearing is being live cast and viewers are encouraged to submit questions via twitter to at u.s. underscore imls. we also have some cards or paper at your chairs if you have questions that you want to submit. we have a staff member perusing that will be picking up those

questions. after each panel presentation are board members have some questions. we will also have the chance for members of the audience and our virtual audience to pose some questions. here we go with our panel number one. we are really looking at the vision. what happens when we get it right. we are going to explore innovative practices and partnerships and investments in broadband making a difference. our first speaker will be crist jowaisas senior officer at the bill and melinda gates foundation. we were hoping to have dionne with us director of el paso public library. unfortunately she had a family emergency and wasn't able to be with us today that we are excited also to have clarence anthony the sake of director of the national league of cities so we will start out with chris. would you like to come to the microphone?

>> thank you director hildreth and the national museum and library services board for holding this hearing. i appreciate the opportunity to talk about the experience that the bill and melinda gates foundation has had ensuring technology through public libraries and our vision of how libraries can utilize broadband to drive first nine community development. today the gates foundation is composed of her grandson initiatives from fighting diseases such as polio malaria and tuberculosis to helping farmers in africa strengthen their crops to improving the educational system in the united states. but it all started in 1997 with the gates library foundation. back then only 25% of public libraries offered public access to the internet. many inside the library community were not sure if this was a service the libraries needed to offer. bill melinda and bill gates senior elite strongly that access to information and technology was absolutely

essential to allowing people to live healthy productive lives and that they felt the public libraries were uniquely situated in the best places to provide such services. for a variety of reasons they felt this primarily because public libraries are free and open to the public very bad support supported with community and most importantly they have knowledge of half. the staff guide people through where. in 1997 the foundation set an ambitious goal. if you you can reach a public library can reach the internet. by 2004 that goal was met. after investing $240 million the u.s. libra's program in conjunctions with our the federal state and local level help to connect 99% of all u.s. public libraries to the internet i still search to this day to find out where that 1% is.

[laughter] our continued funding supporting libraries reflects the belief that investments in public libraries benefit the community at large as other speakers have mentioned. by ensuring that all people have the opportunity to lead productive lives. while the original measure of the foundation is -- and people have access to technology and elaborates his time to turn our attention to ensuring people have access to all the opportunities that technology has to offer and the app or tendency does not increase. the foundation please public libraries are key components in meeting this new vision. they face challenges in doing so. in courting to the 2,112,012 funding and technology act study public wi-fi use increased in the previous year in more than 60% of public libraries but also found within 65% of libraries

report they don't have enough public computers and to meet the demand to 41% report their internet connection speeds are insufficient. meanwhile public libraries are dealing with decreased or inadequate budgets. 23 states reported cuts in state funding for public libraries in 2012 and more than 40% of states reported decreased public support for three years in a row. clearly libraries have stepped in to address this new divide and people are looking to libraries to do just that however libraries do not have adequate resources to meet these expanding needs. despite these continuing challenges relating to funding libraries have continued to move forward and community development in many areas whether it's economic development education for civic engagements or improving health and wellness. they do this through a variety of services such as helping people prepare resumes and apply for jobs equipping them with

digital literacy skills showing them how to take action or helping them find information that improves their health or the health of their loved ones. as libraries have stepped in to this rule peoples needs and expectations of continued to grow. the opportunities involved in libraries strive to close that opportunity divide whether addressing the needs of immigrant communities expanding learning opportunities for adults and in formal and informal ways for supporting students or provision of additional tronic resources. to be in a position to accomplish this position public libraries must have the bandwidth to provide such services in an efficient and effective manner. unfortunately as we have heard this is not always the case and it continues to be a challenge in many after substantial ongoing investments from local state and federal programs to address getting robust connectivity to everyone. before library can fully explore

these new services they have to know that their connectivity infrastructure sufficient to handle experimentation and exploration without negatively impacting access people depend on a daily basis. his on line services evolve to include more video of our other interactive media to deliver content public libraries struggle to provide the quality of service needed by the community when it comes to connectivity. libraries often face this demand with consumer grade connectivity infrastructure that is not easily scale and offers little to no quality of service. essentially libraries are often operating with one arm tied behind her back when it comes to connectivity. broadband activity is the underlying bedrock for building a full suite of services for community and personal development with a robust and reliable broadband connection libraries and communities can move into more areas of exploration and innovation. people can move beyond being passive consumers of content to

creating their own content which is where great personal and economic opportunity lives. as the foundation feels their continued investments in meeting the station we have to see more partners realize the power of the public library to assist personal and community development. the foundation hopes the network of supporters in this vision grows because we have seen and learned firsthand from investments in public libraries that their key organizations for growing opportunity at the personal and community level. thank you for this opportunity to share these comments. [applause] >> no we are ready for clearance. we are so excited that he is spending time with us and has managed to climb over the shares today. thank you clarence. >> thank you. >> you know everyone in this room today has a story or a reason why you are here and you

are committed to libraries and the impact on communities. you know mine began when i was a migrant kid in florida. our family traveled all over america working in the fields but we were placed in florida in the glades, belle glade. we grew up in a community that did not have a library. it did not have the stationary library and so as an eight or 9-year-old kid i had choices to make when that mobile library drove up to the park i could either stay on the playground or i could go into that mobile library for the two hours that it was their. most often the playground one. [laughter] but i will tell you that eventually i found my way into that library. 15 years later i ran for public office in the city and the

community in which i grew up and i had to deal with a number of issues crime, drugs, housing but i knew that when i came back to my community from grad school that one of the things i was going to advocate and fight for was to get a standing library in our community. and so i spoke to the legislators, the county commission for five years straight using the same speech. enough fifth-year the chair of the state legislative committee staffer was a great staff for the exact speech and she read my speech and said would you guys please give this mayor a library? [laughter] well we got it and three years after that i was very blessed and honored.

added very tender age at that time that they named that library that clarence e. anthony library. so why am i here? because it is important. it made a difference in my life. i would not the year if it were not for that institution in that building. even that mobile library that was there for me to read about the places i could travel and the things that i could do as a migrant kid. times have changed but libraries are still important and there are still significant. the one fact that has not changed is the fact that the equalizer in america is education. the equalizer in america is education and the ability right now to connect to the internet and have computers in homes as well as in our libraries.

the national league of cities understands that fact and our political leaders nationally have made a commitment to education and advocate for legislation that will expand the rate program funding, streamline a program and make sure that every american will have the ability to live the american dream and have that access to internet as well as computers. we have also partnered with the urban library council to assist in making sure that any reforms that are developed in the e-rate program really provides the financial commitments that we did in 1996 and the telecommunications act. the $2 billion that we committed is not enough in 2014 to be able

to deal with the issues that we have to deal with to deliver digital connectivity to americans especially those that are similarly most often left fine. the chairman quoted andrew carnegie and i will as well. he stated a library outranks any one thing the community can do to benefit its people. so digital literacy is no longer a choice in american cities. to high-speed internet is essential for americans to do everything as we have heard from finding work, gaining access to health coverage and most of all we must recognize its important that if we are going to bridge the real economic and

educational opportunities in america people have to have access to the internet and computers. it's also important to note that in the minority communities that is where it is hurting most. for city leaders we recognized that the minority community and access to education is important the access to internet is important and we as americans right now are failing. so i don't make speeches just to make briefings and comments. i am calling and asking for action to deal with these many issues. we know the importance of a program. we like to say that cities are the places where action occurs. i'm not going to criticize washington right now that i can tell you mayors and councilmembers and in towns and villages all over america, we are making things happen and we want to partner with you to make

sure that things happen. so as i close i want to say a call to action is needed around this issue. nlcs committed to working with the fcc, view lcd, congress, the white house, imls. we are committed to working with everybody to make sure that we address this issue. we know that talk is easy but action is more important. we know that many families only see iphones and ipads and computers in libraries such as this. we recognize that this is the place that people, and they travel around the world because they can read about places and read about her fashions and opportunities. let's take the time to get the e-rate modernization process

right. let's be creative and bold in our thinking to make sure our libraries have the technology infrastructure that they need to support a strong local community that results in strong national economy. my kids would be embarrassed as i say this but as drake the r&b singer said i started from the bottom and now i'm here and it's because of libraries. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. that was terrific. .. can do to promote a digital literacy. so i would not have a problem

but i do not know that all of our mares are at the place where mr. antonia's. can -- what can your city leaders due to drive this message home? >> i think from the library perspective one of the first things they can do is make sure the city leaders get inside the library. often times it has been awhile since some of the leaders have been in the library to see the changes that have happened and understand the demand. if you have connectivity at home it is hard to understand what a huge role and place in your daily life until it is taken away or missing. for people who do not have that, understanding what that means for them is an important thing. living leaders see it and articulating what it is is important.

>> i agree as a former mayor of you really do have a lot of issues. i would encourage, as you are doing, for the librarians and library communities to become stronger advocates. you have to and make sure that public leaders know that we recognize it is important. if you don't have an educated population, recruitment of companies, libraries are essential part of all of that connected the, but you must tell your story of why it is important before it gets lost in the regular infrastructure, including pipes, water, sewer. if we cannot see those things sometimes the library is invisible. we need to make it more visible. >> that is a great comment. as i say, libraries are sadly never in the front of anyone's

mind. when you bring as up as a service or option everyone is like, why didn't i think of it. we are never at the top. we have to get there. did you have a question? >> has a a librarian and a thriving city you have to articulate that. why is it important and cities in particular was so much going on to provide the public access. as one of the first recipients you are continuing your commitment to broadband and technology access.

>> i talked earlier. the reason why it is important ride now as it is in port, competitive and cities are competing against each other to recruit younger folks into the community. there will not be the great american city that they would like to be. cities right now are celebrating their ability to bring broadband and internet and all kinds of access. they show that as a valuable resource to recruit companies. they don't show the part where there is no population left behind. the reason why cities are getting in this space and identifying it as an important part of their communities is it is about tax bases, jobs, improving the lives of people who live in those communities.

right now i don't think that we as americans have reached into the depths of where we need to to bring everyone out and have access. my dream is to have it 100 percent enter not wide broadband city. that means everyone would have access. i challenge the broadband community to try to find a pilot city that we can actually make. it i will tell the mayor that he said that. [inaudible] >> a quick question for you. not to put you on the spot, but here you go. what would it take to get more funders to support libraries and digital literacy? >> well, you don't have to

convince us. we are continuing. if people could see -- in 1997 are installed computers. the demand is the same now as it was then. the opportunities and skills that people need have changed. to convince more people to come along and it goes back to the point tying it to those desires. if you want to understand economic development whether and the city level, a private foundation, tying it to an educational goals, whatever their reigns, libraries are already doing that work. they are not just doing it, there are doing it while. from that point of view it goes back to telling our story very effectively and in a compelling manner. again, as people talk about that personal relations with they often have, growing batman

worked. >> that was a terrific dancer. libraries are doing so many different things all over the country. we need to package of those services to meet the priorities of founders. a good example is a great partnership digital media labs. refunded 24 all over the country it is great for our teens, our target audience. we are giving those young people skills to get jobs. think about all of the things that we do and package it to meet the needs of the founder. i want to have a round of applause. okay.

panel to is on the way out. again, the hearing is being live cast and viewers are encouraged to ask questions. this is our panel. they will explore what we know about broadband if connections d services and the metrics would need to assess, whether sufficient connectivity is in place, whether the metrics can be used to assure success. our first speaker is with the american library association, director of the network for 0i teepee. they're is a lot of the alphabet soup today, but we can have a little dictionary that we attach to the live cast. the research director for the

nation's institute of the university of arizona as well as research director of the harvard project on american indian economic development and it finally someone well-known tower library community wearing many different hats, currently independent communications and technology consultant. folks, talk a little bit and we will have a chance to ask questions. >> thank you, susan. two of the board members and staff for bringing us together. it is an honor to it shares the stage this morning with so many distinguished speakers. the oldest and largest library association and the world. and ala0i t p with national policies that ensure access to electronic resources as a means of upholding the public's right

to a free and open information society. happy national library week. this morning al draw on more than 20 years of research and the opportunity for all study, office for research and statistics and imls data. i would like to thank all of these researchers and funders for their many contributions. ..

only 20% of libraries reported speeds greater than 1.5 megabits per second. in 2012 we had nearly flipped the statistics. at the other end of the spectrum however fewer than 10% of our libraries reported speeds of 100 megabits per second or faster. preliminary findings on this years year's survey in 2014 show only a few percentage points at this high-end and still roughly 10% of our burr and small libraries are still at 1.5 megabits per second. about half of our libraries have half the bandwidth that we enjoy at home and at the same time they have an average of 10 computers in our burr libraries and 41 and city libraries and far more than that in libraries like washington d.c. or new york or l.a. or chicago. we see nearly ubiquitous free public wi-fi and an exploding number of devices.

i'm sure anybody here and now i have my laptop mice marked on my ipad. we see this in our libraries as well. we are also seeing an increase in downloadable streaming and interactive digital collections including things like from the national archives of course ranging from e-books to instructional videos and videoconferencing in states like maine where people are connectinconnectin g with legal advice and job interviews and connecting with overseas military families. in fact even as speeds improve their bandwidth isn't adequate. as chris mentioned a significant majority of libraries actually 66% of our libraries told us that they need more bandwidth to meet their library needs today. this is again dated that will be released later on this year. 88% of state library agencies report a majority of their libraries need and with upgrades this year and next so it's really important for libraries. so we are not standing still but

too many libraries are falling behind right now. this need for speed is driven by modern library services as libraries have are the one place for all. two-thirds leverage over there the only provider free access to computers and internet. and when you're libraries posted more than 341 million computer uses which does not include the wireless access. libraries leverage internet access to empower library users and support education employment and entrepreneurship predicting john will talk a little more about public use so i will simply add a few examples from the opportunity for all city. and when he roughly 30 million people he's a libraries internet access for employment or career purposes. about 32.5 million years library technology to achieve educational goals including taking on line classes completing schoolwork or researching college programs. 26 million people use library connections to access government information services and officials.

underlying many these uses is the need for many people to increase their digital literacy skills. nearly all ivories provide formal or informal assistance learning everything from setting up an e-mail address to uploading job applications to using new e-book readers and tablets also called tech petting zoos. so we have a lot of data to understand library technology landscape that we also have gaps. we still don't know the number of people that are using library wi-fi for instance at the state or national level. we are just beginning to fill that gap or the quality of a access the experience. we are starting to do bandwidth test so we will have a better grasp on this later on this year. we also lacked national information on library resources including time spent on line and what types of library resources but perhaps most glaringly today we have a wealth of data that remains largely locked away from us. i'm thrilled that i am --

i'm ls has drilled down into this rich vein but we need publicly available and the allah continues to call for more data transparency including block for of the e-rate information. in closing though i would like to say that data is useful as a rear view mirror but not a crystal ball. in a focus group five years ago, five years ago in indiana library and put it this way. at one time we would have said the t. 19 was just the world that it changes too fast. this was in the course of two years. we went from one to one, 21 222321. enforcement more than half of libraries have not caught up with her. we hear from today's gigabit libraries that bandwidth can be a library service that enables robust simultaneous use of recording studios and 3-d modeling counts. new community partnerships ann working space is like here at d.c. public.

telehealth access to electronic health records and global connections. bandwidth should not limit what is possible through our libraries. you need to bring more gigabit to libraries and our communities. thank you very much. [applause] >> laura is a lot taller than i am. director hildreth distinguished members of the panel and also chairman and wheeler and mr. power thank you for convening this panel and also for your opening remarks. as susan told you my name is marion jorgensen and then researched our draft the nations visited at the university of arizona and also the harvard project on american india economic development. at the harvard project in native nations visited i were to understand the conditions that lead to better economic and well-being outcomes or american

unions and alaska natives living in their homelands. these are critical questions. recent research by harvard project affiliated economist randall a key and jonathan taylor reminds us that even in 2010 per-capita income for american indians living on reservations remained less than half of the u.s. average. they are below the per-capita income of hispanics african-americans and asian-americans via very wide margin. there are over 560 recognized american indian alaskan natives in the united states, more than 300 in the lower 48 states and more than 200 alaska. it's vital for the many people living in these communities would like to return to these communiticommuniti s and even for the many non-native united

states citizens who live near american indian alaskan native lands. it is with this background that i come to my work with the association of tribal archives libraries and museums also known as a tom. it's a nonprofit native led organization founded in 2010 with support from ml iso thank you very much for that that provides training and services to the nation's 519 tribal archives libraries and museums. my work has largely involved survey and statistical data analysis. most recently i partnered with staff and board member tracy morris who is an expert in tribal digital media to conduct a study which we have called digital inclusion in indian country the role of tribal libraries. the findings from the study will be released in several weeks but i would like to share six preliminary findings as i believe they are important to the discussion today and because they ultimately speak to the possibility for change life

outcomes for citizens of american indian and alaska native nations. first tribal libraries are less able to offer internet access than our non-native public libraries. only 80% of tribal libraries offer internet access as compared to between 95 to 99% depending on the statistics you refer to a nontribal public libraries. additionally nearly 40% of tribal libraries acquisition more access computers is extremely important to the highest rating they could give it. second tribal libraries are key points of internet access for reservation residents. 43% of tribal libraries that offer public access are the only sort of free public internet access in their communities and two-thirds of tribal libraries are in communities were no more than 30% of homes have any internet access. in fact many have no access at all. third, a significant fraction of tribal libraries with access to not have very good access and as

loris pointed out that's critically important. of 100 tribal libraries that reported speed of internet connection fully one third cannot offer connection speeds greater than three megabits per second which is the bare minimum for operating many web based applications that improve human capital and offer connections to the broader economy. fourth, the e-rate program could make a difference but it's vastly underutilized by tribal libraries. an earlier study i did in 2011 found that at most 15% of reported tribal libraries received e-rate discounts. by comparison data released just yesterday by imls 2000 public libraries have benefited from ebay. data points have only 70% of tribal libraries have applied for e-rate. this leads to my fifth . confusion over eligibility and a general lack of awareness limits tribal libraries access to e-rate. 20% of reporting live brace indicated they were unsure if

their library was eligible and another 50% said they had never heard of the program. these findings are consistent with the fact that information about eve rate has never been disseminated specifically to the tribal library community. sixth and circling back to the points i made at the outset internet access of tribal libraries support committee prosperity and well-being. tribal libraries do not simply offer public access to computers and the internet. they provide training that helps translate use of the possibilities technology offers great half of tribal libraries report providing training and general internet and computer use. 40% provide training in how to access government information such as social security and medicare and income tax data. another 40% offer training on how to find job related information. 35% offer access to health-related training and access to health-related information. the tribal library and from the southwest summarizes the ideas

of my testimony well. he said our tribal committee uses the donated reference computers to access tribal employment applications. social services services resources and college on line homework. the computers allow them to access information that will improve their lives. knowledge not readily available to them because they don't have technology at home. must connect to the internet via cell phone and hang around library library during off hours to access wi-fi. or computers are busy all day from open to close. it's beautiful to see our tribal people learn in that way but it's sad that we do not have more than six computers and they do not have them at home. our statistics show the need for more stations for our population base and this is a shout-out to chris. he also added if you see anyone from the gates foundation please let them know. in conclusion i know the tribal libraries are culture bears for the nations collecting and making available key materials about language, history and material culture. at the same time tribal

libraries are often the only place in native communities where tribal members can access social services jobs tanking and travel information and stay in touch with distant family. the ox is the tribal libraries provide makes tribal people lives -- people's lives better everyday. they were once part of the past and part of the future of native nations. i commend institute of museum and library service for its interest in indian country and his support. i'm hopeful that these forthcoming data point to a pathway for significantly improved broadband access in tribal communities through their tribal library systems. thank you for your vacation to testify and i welcome any questions that you might have. [applause] >> we will have some questions for you later miriam. imls is working to make sure our tribal libraries have better access.

john. >> thank you very much susan and have my first bank imls for inviting me to participate in today's hearing. it's wonderful to be here and see so many friends and familiar faces both on the dais and in the audience. let me begin by saying that libraries fill two important roles in a society where more and more business services depend on the internet. i want to touch on them today and make the case that bandwidth and libraries are critically important to helping all americans have a chance to translate digital abundance into tools that can open doors to connectivity and i'm going to do it with a bunch of data points. first libraries serve a critical role in providing a place where people can improve their level of digital skills and the need to improve people's digital skills is important and i think it's often overlooked in today's mainstream discourse. our digital culture tends to assume that once adopting elites

get the latest technology than then everybody follows and immediately gets it. yet there is ample evidence that there is wide variation in the level of digital skills in the general population. recent research i've done that i will be releasing in a few weeks so you get to hear it first fines based on the 2013th survey there is significant variation in the digital skills even among people who have all the digital tools that we take for granted today. today 80% of americans have advanced internet access and by that i mean they either have broadband at home or they have a smartphone. within this group of highly wired people nearly one fifth or 18% has low levels of digital skills. that's 34 million americans and low levels of digital skills tracks closely with low levels of on line activity particularly

inconsequential areas such as looking for work are going to a government web site. for instance among those with low digital skills just 10% use the internet during their most recent job search and those with high levels of digital skills, 52% use the internet in their most recent job search. taking another example of digital skills just 2% say they have ever taken a class on line and high levels of digital skills ,-com,-com ma 26% have taken a class on line, a huge gap. these differences in on line use are important because for the most part it's the expectation in society that everyone is connected at home with broadband. recent research i have done on the comcast internet essentials program which serves low-income family with school-aged children who get free or reduced price lunches shows this. when asked the set of new internet users recently signed

on to the via comcast internet essentials. respondents said their children school expected they had internet access at home. 65% said their financial institutions expected that they have brought band at home and 53% said their health insurance companies expected that they have broadband at home. so there are two things going on. one, more and more seditions expect people to connectivity on line at home and at the same time many americans have insufficient levels of digital skills. this means we need to begin to look at the digital equity differently. stakeholders offer digital skills as only affects the disconnected people on the other side of the digital divide. but as i have shown many people, about one fifth of adults with advance on-line access have low levels of digital skills.

this means they lack digital readiness which i think is a term that captures the scope of the challenge we have in ensuring that all segments of society are ready for next generation information committee patience technology. this leads to my second for libraries. namely that they are the vanguard that enforces digital readiness for the entire population. libraries are both access points for those without broadband at home and information resources for people with service. we know according to the pew research center that 30% of americans did not have broadband at home. that's 2013th figure and that translates to 34 million households or 90 million people to about half of those people are internet users and they just don't have high-speed service at home. this creates the need for places

for on-line access where people can use the internet. libraries clearly fill that third place to the provision of terminals for those without access and many who do have access at home. they do more as they also help people negotiate a complex and quickly changing information environment. here are some data points from the pew research center to help illuminate this. 35% of americans in 2012 said they had accessed the internet at a library for a fee -- for free. this is the same figure 35% we found in a survey i conducted in 2009 which showed at that time 35% of americans have used the internet library for free. 44% of american adults have used a public library web site. 30% within the last year and 77% of americans say free access to computers and the internet is a

very important service for libraries to provide. americans expect more from libraries as technology changes in the digital age. again according to the pew research center 63% of americans over the age of 16 say they are likely to use mobile apps that libraries may provide to access programs and services at the library. 65% of library patrons say they would like to have a tech petting zoo and 60% would like to have the digital media lab to help them digitize personal material. in conclusion let me point out the temptation to think that we have lived through most of the internet revolution yet we have only lived through the very beginning. the advent of the internet of things raises the stakes and changes the stakes as the internet's usefulness will expand in unforeseen ways. this will challenge many of us

who are highly wired to keep up with the necessary knowledge to troubleshoot gadgets and understand new applications. that means as a society we will need to provide additional educational resources to learn what these new services are all about. this leads to three implications and want to leave you with. one, digital readiness is an social policy challenge for those interested inequity on the internet. to libraries and librarians will be on the frontlines in helping americans negotiate a world where digital applications makes the case for them to have additional bandwidth very compelling. thank you very much. [applause] >> okay we have some questions for our panel. i don't know if we have any audience questions but i am so excited to hear the term digital

readiness. we have been struggling with that term for so long. we use the term digital literacy and people think what does that mean? i not literate. that's just the term of the day digital readiness of thank you john. carla did you have a question? then we are going to take you off the stage. >> what are some of the challenges that other space in terms of collecting better data and providing the things that you need to make the case? >> i think there are few challenges. one is just library staff time. a lot of our libraries, i think everybody feels that strain if you will but many of our libraries may only have a few people so the data collection piece can be tricky. gathering some of the digital statistics also is hard. where do you collect the data?

how do you collected the data? the methodology is really important. and there was a third thing that i'm just linking on that just came into my head. survey fatigue is always an issue but maybe i will let you go while i think of my third thing. >> alastair with methodology and go to intentional research questions framed to assess outcomes from library access on the internet and that is not something librarians are probably well-suited to do. so i think it re-creates the need for funding for university researchers to get in there and really be on the ground in assessing outcomes. inevitably having the broadband plan to get questions from policymakers on what are the outcomes and i think we have to be very intentional about that. >> i was going to say the third thing when i think about our

colleagues in the school environment our community comes in and out of libraries. we have these spikes in access and we have a strong commitment to privacy and so folks come in and out and use our library resources in keeping track in and giving to those outcomes can be much more challenging as opposed to having a population is in the school building every day. i think that's another challenge for being able to capture the impact of library service. >> i know our board member charles manson is going to pose a question for miriam but i just wanted to acknowledge that charles benton who is on our board and also formally on the national commission board has been committed his entire life to digital access. we know he's a great champion. he's out there all the time. we are so happy to be with us today and he has been a leader for years in this area. charles, question? >> i have got a script.

i was interested in your point that there is very little information about e-rate that is being shared with tribal libraries and i'm wondering what your thoughts are on funding ford digital access especially given the numerous efforts to support native american library institutions starting with the many resolutions and the first white house conference and services that were adopted and incorporated to ls ta let alone the most recent new america new media technologies in indian country and the native networks. so there is a lot of research going on. what is to do about this? how do we get the ball moving in terms of digital access in

libraries? >> i really appreciate that question because i think there are some simple things that can be done. i think that there've been some policy changes that have unintentionally left native people out or made it more difficult for tribes to access funding and services so the ships from the library construction services back to the library services act created some barriers. those are simple shift that can be removed which make it more difficult for tribal libraries to access those funds and we can provide further information. i will point to my colleague who is the executive director of tribal ivories and museums who has provided a brief to the fcc that talks about what some of the simple policy changes are. one of the issues for instances around the fact that there are requirements for tribes in state library associations with their barriers to associations so there are requirements one

direction that can be met in another traction which is a simple policy. change the lever. as getting information out there and making some the applicatiapplicati ons easier to do in providing support for some of the funding applications is also relatively simple policy change that can be done. overall something that would be potentially a little more costly but would have long-term payoffs though is i think within the overall structure of management of library agencies imls or another setting there needs to be more intentional focus on tribal libraries whether that's a tribal agency dedicated to tribal libraries or increase staff members who are going to be able to interface between the fed's and the states in the tribal libraries. we have seen other policy areas that kind of specific focus on interjecting that were tribal into the funding stream or the policy stream has made a tremendous amount of difference and it's great we have now over a decade of research to back

that up. >> thank you. winston did you have a question? >> i the question for john. as people have more and more ways today to go on line what do you think libraries and particularly our digital resources that insulated people find information that is the most important of them? what is their niche in this information rich world? >> i think a lot has to do with giving people not just the resources to bolster their digital readiness but trust and caring contents of people can trust the information they're getting on how to use a new application is safe. a lot of these new applications require sharing personal data and if you look at barriers to broadband particular among older people the worries about the possible hazards of on line access are huge barriers not only to adoption but sustained use the libraries can fulfill a critical role in that regard. >> john just a quick follow up for you. is there a correlation between

those who in your research at low levels of digital skills and the types of devices they use? >> yes. certainly people with low levels of digital skills have lower levels of access assets but just to reiterate a point i made during my remarks one fifth of people with low levels of digital skills skills have two big on-ramps that are key today. broadband at home and smartphones you do control for all sorts of factors age, income amount of on line assets this the digital skills gap is digital readiness gap is real. >> thank you very much. that's good information to have. i would like to have a round of applause for our second panel and we will bring up our third panel. [applause]

[inaudible conversations] >> so our third panel is really all about moving forward. this panel will discuss solutions for a robust connectivity in libraries. some great ideas about that and we'll be hearing from gary wasdin and eric frederick and linda lord. gary is the executive director of the omaha public library system and has had a long career in libraries and also is currently a member of the urban libraries council executive lord eric frederick is the executive director of connects michigan and linda lord, famous linda lord our maine state library in. imls has a very close relationship with all of our state libraries out there and we

have one of the premier state library and with us here. linda lord who is also the chair of the e-rate task force that we are glad to have all of you today and they will ask you to make your remarks and then we have some good questions for you as well. so the gary would you start out? >> thank you susan and thank you everyone for joining us today. asking me to do this in five minutes is like putting me in front of a buffet and asking me to eat all the salad. i'm going to try to stick to four key points in my remarks here. first just a quick overview of some of the issues we face in nebraska and in omaha. i've been in omaha for four years so it's been new to me and it's been a learning process. we are a midsize city about half a million people but nearly a third of the population of our state lives in omaha in douglas county. we have lower than average

unemployment in that part of the country and certainly in omaha our economy has been much more stable over the last few years. however that really breaks down as you start to look at specific groups and specific audiences in our community. clarence mentioned earlier about minority populations and how they are affected much more significantly by the economy and by employment issues and that's extremely through in omaha. we are largely a rural state. omaha has 12 libraries. the rest of the state is primarily smaller libraries many of whom have internet access for the first time through the successful program. we play a strong role in education and learning with their omaha public libraries. that has been an even more significant over the last two years as we have been working on

imls grand design to reinvent our library system as a community engagement tool to help build our city and grower city's economy and to help people strengthen their lives, their skills and improve their circumstances. in doing so we have been working much more strongly with our business community which has transformed how we see technology and the need for technology there are library system. we are the only access point for internet in omaha that is free so our computers are heavily used. our wi-fi is even more heavily used and that grows exponentially each year. omaha is a strong business town. we have five fortune 500 companies there and workforce development is one of the most critical things that has emerged through our grant research and working with our community. we have created a bit of a circumstance.

isn't an be able petition to be in the many ways but in this community what we have found is a community that desperately wants us to being with them and they want us to be a leader when it comes to technology education, when it comes to skills development. many of our larger corporations are finding that they have to look outside the city to bring in skilled workers who have the digital skills that are necessary for our part of the country. in particular individuals who can write code and don't ask me, i don't know what coding is what i know that it's necessary and our companies are having to bring in individuals who have the skill set. it's a skill set that is not terribly difficult to learn. it doesn't require formal education. it's something that individuals are given the axis and the ability to learn there's a job waiting for them on the other side. we have been asked to look at what we can do with building those skills. just this past friday actually some very sad news. a small company a tech startup

that grew in omaha and some of you may be familiar with it. the company is mined mixer. it's a company that creates on line town halls for cities who are looking for information through an engagement-based research from individuals in and their communities. unfortunately they announce that they're leaving omaha and moving to kansas city and they are doing so quite simply because they cannot find enough workers to meet the demand in omaha. carla asked earlier how do we get the attention of elected officials for the need for libraries and digital instruction? that is how we get there attention. we have to say this cannot happen again. we cannot lose another company for this reason. now we have already started on a lot of this work and it continues. we recently employed linda.com which is available in all of our her libraries. this provides instruction on computers in any one of our 12

libraries on all kinds of topics and some that include software skills, design skills as well as management classes, leadership lasses. people can come to the library. there are video instructoinstructo r led programs that really helped them build a skill set they heretofore may not have been accessible to. we offer ged lasses in the library which gives us the opportunity not only to work with partner agencies to help people prepare for the ged exam itself also to help them get comfortable using computers since the ged test now is done on a computer. we don't want them to be sitting there for the first time using a computer and having to face a difficult task. the affordablaffordabl e care act was one of our most recent technology bubbles in the library system. for the last two months for sign-up over 1000 people came to our libraries to find out more about their insurance options

into sign-up for insurance. this was a wonderful example of how people come to libraries not just for a computer and not just for internet access. they came to us for support. as someone mentioned earlier i believe was chairman wheeler that talked about the guide by side hill. people who had internet access needed help and they were fortunate to have trained volunteer navigators they are to help people navigate the system to get on line and to use the programs that were available. now for the future, what is the future? none of us know what the future is for technologtechnolog y. we know it will be different but what we are doing in omaha is creating a technology incubator library. this is a space that will give us the opportunity to experimeno see what works and see what our community needs. and to see what doesn't work. we'll be able to do that in a

space that's independent from our other libraries but very much connected and part of our libraries. we are doing this with a wonderful supportive philanthropists in the city and to the public-private partnership that makes these things possible. earlier we talked a little bit about the public-private partnership and is something i rely on and were e-rate funding helps me tremendously. in talking to our philanthropic community in omaha the first thing they want to know is what is the government doing? what is the city and what is the state and federal government doing to help libraries before they will step up with their private support. so e-rate helps leverage those private dollars to help make this possible. in our incubator we will have the opportunity to have his face ... off her after-school programs that teach youth creative school -- skills that help them learn to design and create content higher

and software for job skills for people applying for jobs and doing more. as we look to launch this space next year we are excited to take all of the research that has been done by partners around the country using the edge initiative that has come from you'll see the great research that has come out of pew over the last few years to create a space where he can put those in practice and see how they fit in our omaha community. thank you so much for this opportunity to talk and i will turn it over to eric. [applause] >> is a very platform up here. director hildreth and members of the board thank you for the honor of speaking today. he is a little taller than me. the importance of broadband for libraries and the modernization of its major funding vehicles e-rate.

i agree with gary that asking me to do this in five minutes is a difficult task. we have talked about stories and that is what i'm here today to do. i will give you a bit of background before he started to those stories. as susan said i'm the executive director of connect michigan. we are a nonprofit subsidiary of connected nation partner with the michigan public service commission and our task is to felicitated the expansion of broadband technology access adoption use throughout the state. we are michigan's expression of the state broadband initiative administered and funded by the national information administration so thank you for the ntia for the opportunity. over the last four years in concert with a lot of the other work that all programs are doing throughout the country including broadband mapping and research we have been implementing the connected community engagement program and this is a robust grassroots effort to bring together local stakeholders around the idea of broad bend

technology of small-scale, assess their local broadband landscape identify gaps in their susman and help them develop and actionable plan for filling in those gaps. over the last two years we have engaged with 27 communities across the state of michigan doubleday mount required by a federal grant and engage 1300 stakeholders in that process. team members on these local teams include chambers of commerce academic development corp. schools broadband providers and of course the libraries. we have seen first-hand through the connected program the critical role that libraries play in communities throughout the country. library service and access point to a limitless resources of the internet and of course her catalyst for adoption. services offered by libraries are some of the key points that we look at when doing our local broadband assessment through the

connected program including public computer center hours and digital literacy classes. we have countless stories to share regarding best practices and success is coming out of or connected program. if i were to shake my sieve of this practice as those that float to the top of the libraries. i want to share specific stories from michigan communities and the impact they are having in broadband technology. in eastern upper peninsula library system came a hub for students access the internet once the local system provided students grades seven through 12 with a laptop excess of the btop program however the vast majority of the students did not have an at-home broadband connections to libraries advocated for expanded parking lots to increase their bandwidth and extended their hours to meet the needs of the students. in communities with active broadband technology planning teams many michigan -- are working with libraries to

ensure this adequate bandwidth hours of operation and capacity to meet the increased community demand for high-speed connectivity. libraries across michigan contribute significant to local economic development efforts partnering local chambers of commerce and economic develop and corporations to host web site and social media development training for small businesses. michigan's economy realized quite heavily on these establishments and those are businesses with 20 employees or fewer harvard researchers found michigan small business are less likely to adopt broadband that large establishments and small businesses in other states. in response in the winter 2013 members of the chippewa technology planning teams engage their connected program partners with libraries and chambers of commerce to train 140 small businesses on e-commerce and web site development so they may leverage technology to sustain and grow themselves and rural michigan appeared along the same lines michigan's harbor committees are greatly depend on the summer months.

anyone who is familiar with the pure michigan campaign. they require ongoing committee geisha with employers via e-mail and cloud computing. find michigan hybrids and small coastal towns making ideal second offices away from home. they contribute to the local economy for longer periods of time because they still have sufficient bandwidth to telecommute. libraries in harbor springs witowski frankfurt traverse city up-and-down michigan's west coast are packed with these types of folks in the summertime being able to bring their families to michigan to enjoy the environment. as we have experienced our work on the ground to michigan libraries that are engage with a broader community technology planning program are developing creative and innovative solutions in programs and methods to help solve community connectivity and adoption initiatives. e-rate reform offers an

unprecedented opportunity to prioritize and incentivize applications for libraries that are part of a broader community of technology plan. libraries and rural michigan are seen as gems in their community. susan mentioned earlier about bringing libration the forefront of people's minds and these broader community technology planning teams are absolutely doing that bringing libraries back to the forefront of the minds of local officials and schools and economic development corporations for the role they play in connecting everyone in the community. public-private partnerships and concurrent the structure instruction are just a few examples of efficiencies produced from collaborating in cloward of community technology programs. libraries play a critical role in broadband access and adoption and mission communities not just for the digital literacy skills of individuals but for those of businesses that are making michigan communities thrive in these tough economic times. thank you again for allowing me to come today and to share some of the stories and successes of michigan's libraries. thank you.

[applause] >> the final speakers may keep her way up here. linda lord. thank you so much eric. >> good morning everyone. i am in awe at being here today with so many interesting people including some old friends. what a pleasure. thank you imls. i don't know where commissioner hunt is but hearing him speak in a few minutes is one of the thrills of my being here today. i learned a phrase here in d.c. a couple of years ago which seems incredibly appropriate. everything has been said but not everyone has said it.

[laughter] and i'm sure you have not heard it in a maine accent so here i go. and i wanted very much to yell ditto and ditto after gary and eric spoke. i certainly enjoyed their comments. the american library association has advocated for high-capacity broadband libraries library since the beginning of the e-rate program and i am always so proud to mention that my former senator olympia snowe was essential, was critical in getting this program into the american telecommunications legislation of 1996. allah recognizing the importance of e-rate for libraries early on established an official at e-rate task force that closely monitors and responds to fcc proceedings within the washington office and i am so pleased to work with these

people at allah who are so supportive of the task force's work. there is no question that the e-rate has transformed the way libraries and schools function to better serve the needs of patrons and students and from my perspective in maine it's been an incredibly successful program however after nearly 20 years even the successful program should reassess to make sure that is focused on meeting today's connectivity needs. therefore allah supports the fine-tuning of the program and creating efficiencies wherever possible. however i do caution we first do no harm. in march the fcc released a public notice and i will share a few details since i have been asked to from the allah responses. first allah believes its proposals address some of the greatest challenges are

libraries have in reaching the broadband speeds they need for today's and tomorrow's services. allah wants to focus on places where high-capacity broadband is not available to libraries and where if it is available it is not affordable. allah wants to also study library broadband targets. we believe that this should occur with scalable technology instead of continuing in incremental improvements. we envision all libraries at one gigabyte by 2018 if not earlier. as an aside our goal for 2015 is one gig to 99% of maine's schools and libraries. i want to interject here that maine had all its schools and libraries connected to the internet in 1997 and 1998. we connected them to a 56 k.

line with a fred. does anyone know what it is any anymore? is a frame access device and we truly thought we were in hog heaven. a rep came to the meeting and he said you've got to be thinking about service. obviously that is changed as rapidly as the other states who have heard about earlier. i just met the wonderful -- and the fcc yesterday to learn that arizona south carolina and maine maximize use of the e-rate program and not being competitive for anything i thought why isn't maine first but then i realized alphabetical order so i tamps down after that one. we do maximize their use of e-rate program and i would love to explain how we do that but there's no time for it. if anyone's interested i will be glad to talk your ear off on what's going on in maine.

25% say a majority of their libraries lack adequate bandwidth now in 92% say most of their libraries will need more bandwidth within three years. i did a quick survey in maine a couple of weeks ago asking what libraries would do with broader bandwidth and within a few hours a 51 replies some from libraries i never hear from baking for router bandwidth which i thought was fascinating because we think they do a pretty good job at providing what they needed obviously aren't. it is broadband is so critical to libraries and they recommend using a portion of the fcc's 2 billion-dollar i believe it's called down payment to immediately increase library broadband. ala has three main proposals. the first is called the scalable technology deployment program that would apply to libraries in close proximity to providers who can offer speeds of at least 100 megabits up to our one gigabit.

ala thinks his project can find ways to being cost affordable and might read expanding with his little competition. the second proposal would promote school harder ships. at if a school is a broadband connectivity in a library close to it has why not have a library author that schools broadband and when ala mentioned this i said isn't that legal now? we are doing it in places in maine and the main main's response was yes it's perfectly respectable to do now. the third and final project calls for network diagnostics and technical support. this project would maximize the cost inefficient use of e-rate unsent helpless -- libraries including purchasing and burglarized on support from state libraries who have trained e-rate coordinators with a

statewide perspective on the status and connect to the needs of their libraries. you want to recognize imls for allowing ellis ta funds to be used for education. that's a huge support in very critical and i would be remiss without recognizing the gates foundation. what a difference it made. two other suggestions. align the processes you have heard that before and overall funding is going to have to be increased. i will tell you frankly that phasing out support for voice services is then a contentious issue for the past -- task force and libraries across the country particularly our smaller rural libraries. some of the issues we have weighed in on include what to do or we have discussed including what to do in cases of emergency or areas where alternative to telephone may not be reliable or affordable.

i did another survey for my poor libraries to a survey to death and it was clipped right down the middle on this. whether not losing it would damage them and i got the most touching note from one library. a large library with the gigabit finish and they said yes to losing pot support with her just because we taken a couple thousand dollars a year because we have these lines coming in however we know how much of their libraries need broadband so we would vote to spend the money on broadband. that just amazed me that library had the big perspective and was aware of concerns across the state. we do -- ala supports a phaseout of voice services. i emphasize gradually for the reasons i just mentioned. finally i would like to bring this back to -- and you have heard this. libraries touch all aspects of life from education employment

entrepreneurship empowering people in all stages and all walks of life. when people can't apply for jobs and access government services because they don't have access from home public libraries must be there for them. where else are they going to go? police station? town hall. i don't think so. public libraries libraries are it and i guess i want to conclude. we have heard so many statistics in so many goals but to bring it down to what gary did we are talking about the lives of tens of thousands of individual people whose lives are being enriched by it broadband in our public libraries and that is the key plan i want to leave you with. we we are not just talking abstractions data and goals. we are talking about people's lives. the final point is we don't know what the next new thing is going to be. a lot of patrons are going to come in any year wearing googled

losses in bringing the ipads in their computers, their iphones? we don't know but whatever it is we do know it will involve and with an library patrons will expect their libraries are ready to provide it and it works well at the library. we can't allow inadequate bandwidth to limit the services that are libraries can give their communities. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you window. i think most of the folks in the audience know what pazz is and i was listening to you linda and i almost heard pots and i said why is the ftc supporting pot in libraries but pots plain old telephone service just to clarify. it would be fun if we had pot there as well but plain old telephone service. so we have a couple of

questions. we will try to stay on time watching our clocks but our first question comes from one of our board members christy brando who i also want to just ignore it has been a state librarian and has been involved with e-rate issues in both michigan and kansas for sure and i'm not sure about other states. christie i think you have a question for gary. >> you mentioned that e-rate helps leverage dollars. what are some of the challenges you have experienced with the current e-rate program and how would you suggest it changes to better serve your community? >> as i said it is key and leveraging other dollars which helps us magnify what we are capable of doing. in a library of my size the money that comes in from that without it we wouldn't be able to provide the service period.

the cuts that we would have to make to offset the loss of that funding would be significant. the -- challenges many have mentioned already with the complicated processes involved as an example in the library of my size with a limited number of staff and especially with staff with limited expertise in this area have to pay a consulting firm to apply for e-rate funds for us so we actually have to spend some of our money to even apply to get the funds. it's worth it for us to force but that is how challenging the process and the time involved is doing it. that's true throughout nebraska so as far as how we change i think looking at how we can make this an easier process to get the money where it needs to go and insured spent smartly. eric you spoke, you heard very compelling stories that talk a little bit more about how you think the public private

partnerships have really impacted community planning efforts in e-rate modernization. i think it's a great example to have a public-private work going on and hasn't really made a difference? >> i think it absolutely has. we find in tough economic times particularly in rural michigan in communities that have been hit the hardest that public private partnerships are a way of life now. no single entity could stand on their own so when we bring these things together natural collaborative models come to the top. this libraries talking to schools chambers and economic developers. we have seen among community were separate intergovernmental library systems and others joined together to provide e-rate for everyone signed on rural local governments to that system for increased efficiencies and then expanded that system and linked it to a

private-sector provider to serve grimm townships in a county that is the most underserved in michigan and now has a broadband connectivity. those public-private partnerships are definitely a way of life force by the economic downturn but showing success in a lot of fake kind -- companies we work them. >> linda we are both from states that have a lot of rural libraries that rely on e-rate and pots to serve the community they have. how will these proposals help those libraries that are the furthest behind? >> also any thoughts about rural areas where we have challenges in terms of making investments at all? >> yes, absolutely. i am proud to say there's no

cable tv. that is a very difficult thing. christie the first part of your question. >> how will that help the libraries that are the furthest behind? >> they are definitely focused on those libraries and there would be a way to determine. that way hasn't been figured out yet but there would be a way to determine which libraries desperately need to begin a pilot project to get that connectivity. >> okay we want to keep our efforts here on time. we have a couple of other questions. there was one question are there any studies or experiencexperienc s of the low. >> versus high-speed libraries in terms of service quality and for i.d.?

i think one of the challenges you know as we as she said linda salbi said that none of not everyone has said it. we all know for the most part it's really bad out there and we have to get connectivity better but i think the real challenge is do we really understand and can we imagine what it would be like with better connectivity and even if we had it we are still not there. the next day something new will come along so it's amazing to me that 50 of your main libraries and i'm sure some of them are small could come up with uses for increased broadband. i would like to thank our panel and ask you to step down as we appreciate your efforts. [applause] so now read if you would join me up here on the podium.

i am being joined by reed hundt who is the former chairman of the federal communications commission and as we heard today really i want say grandfather but maybe godfather of the e-rate. he is currently the ceo of the coalition for green capital in nonprofit group that promotes the development of national and state banks. he was the chairman of the fcc from 1993 to 97 he was on president obama's 2008 presidential transition team. he sits on the board of directors of intel corp. and mitigation software firm smarts guy networks and a financial services firm. he is a vocal proponent of libraries. it is appropriate that we and

with his remarks given a lifelong commitment to improve broad than connectivity is one of the original architects of the program and we are so pleased pleased to open this up with our chairman wheeler and in this with chairman reed hundt. we are very honored to have those two chairman acknowledge the importance of libraries. [applause] >> thank you very much to this susan for hosting everybody here today and also to susan benson who is my friend and client because they represent her as a pro bono lawyer at the fcc. you all know that susan is the ceo of the early library counsel. first a personal note. my sister is the head librarian in rockville maryland and my nephew is a librarian.

my mother was a public schoolteacher. my brother is a public schoolteacher. my sister-in-law is a public schoolteacher and i once was a public schoolteacher. in washington they would be called takers but we regard ourselves as a family that has had a long long commitment to public service. i am very proud if i could be so bold to say that i import the library community. now i would like to express some of the realities of the situation and everything i say is going to be good news. the library community folks we need to step up our game. we are in the playoffs. we need to aim higher. we need to pull together. we need to fight more fiercely and we need to understand that this is something we can handle. it is critical that everyone understand the political realities that face chairman wheeler and face the fcc.

the before i go into more detail i want to make sure that you understand that i was not in fact the creator of e-rate and the leadership is critical in every walk of life but particularly in politics. and i want to recognize the two principle leaders who created e-rate. first i'll gore. it was in the winter of 1993 and 19904 owl called me to his office he was a senator elected vice president of united states and he said if i could persuade president-elect bill clinton to make you the chairman of the fcc i will do it if you promise to find a way to have the following occur. i want every school girl in

tennessee to be able to go to the library of congress without buying a bus ticket. i want all that information digital and i want the most remote schoolchild in the poorest community of the united states to have access to it. from the beginning the vision was schools and libraries information are all in it together. and then he said my father is the principal author of the interstate highway act. this is going to be the digital equivalent. a lot of that has happened but that wouldn't have happened but for the fact that about three years later senator olympia snowe i note a republican, has said to me you why the fcc chairman. how would you like to pay a visit to bangor maine. i cannot announce anger

correctly. close enough? somehow doesn't sound the same woman that says it doesn't? so i flew up there was senator snowe and we went to a school and she gave a wonderful talk to the students and she took me to the library at the school and she said in the future this is almost 20 years ago she said in the future there won't be that many more of looks here. it will all be digital. i want to make sure that all the digital information in the world is available to every single child goes to the school or any other school in the country. it came down to a critical vote in a divided congress and all the democrats wanted al gore's vision to come home true and for a whole bunch of reasons that are characteristic of partisanship and not bipartisanship the republican party didn't want anything al gore advocated to come true and

olympia snowe stood up in front of everyone else at a commerce committee and she said i'm voting with the democrats. 10-8. that is how it passed into law. there were two republicans and one independent who wanted to vote against it so we would have lost at the fcc and not been able to pass the rule. i told and of the story the other day. olympia snowe stayed up until 3:00 in the morning working the phones calling the republicans and getting them to vote yes. and then at 730 in the morning she said i really don't understand why

a so thanks to susan benson in the last two weeks for urban library council did a survey of

33 major libraries in the united states, more than 100 different buildings and that survey demonstrated in these libraries that not one single one has one gigabit a second connectivity to the buildings and when you pull out the handheld device that you measure the wi-fi at 4:00 p.m. in every single one of the major libraries, these are the major, the biggest live racing united states. in every single one the wi-fi connectivity is inferior to what it is in the suburbs of the united states in the homes. in homes. how can anyone think that the hundreds of people in this building now are getting anything like, anything like adequate access to the internet? what is the meaning of adequate access? of things you have all heard over the last several hours being able to download a job application and to fill it out. being able to go on line and take a course, being able to enroll at code.org and learn one

hour learning to code. these are not the things that al gore and olympia snowe knew would be the demand case years later but they knew that something like them would be the demand case. 30 million americans every single year ago to a public library for free access in order to improve their careers. that's one tenth of the population. and it's not the same people every year. over the course of just three or four years the majority of adult americans go to a library to try to get a job or improve the job they have. this is the importance of public access. you all have studied. you have all shown that there is popular opinion behind this vision. now let's talk about some of the statistics and i want to go right to the core of an issue that has plagued us today since it started two years ago. first schools or libraries which

is more important? schools or libraries? i think it's a false choice. i think we should talk about al reg about what libraries need and that should be some amount of money and schools need some amount of money and when you add the two together you know the total you need. it doesn't mean a different tax base. it is an mean you need to think about them differently because they serve overlapping population but it's a way to figure out what you really need. nevertheless i do want to compare the two because when you talk about needs and statistically useful terms. libraries constitute about 20% of the number of openings in schools. libraries on a visits per year basis are 20% of visits the visits to schools every single year. if we talk about potential users there are four times as many potential users of the library says there are schools. if we talk about the number of registered users and libraries

there are more than two times as many registered users and libraries as there are children and teachers in schools. if we talk about the actual internet access which john was just talking about more than two times the number of internet access users in public libraries as in schools. so whichever way you want to measure you actually have metrics so whether you look at it as building 20% or look at it as users in terms of two times in four times then you have to compare against the following. e-rate money how much is gone to schools? the law clerk was talking to his earlier about the shortfalls in data gathering. as best as anyone has been able to guess and it is not to the credit of the fcc that they have not made the data transparent but they are making a transparent because laura and susan have been pushing them on this and they are willing to be pushed. this fcc is willing to be

pushed. we still don't even know how much money the e-rate has paid out to schools. the best guess, it's about 3%. 3% is 20% proportion of buildings and it isn't anything like the relative proportion to the number of users and libraries. all we can say about 3% as it hasn't produced the desired result. because when susan's group did the measurement in these libraries in less than 10 days because modern measurement tools work just like that, just like that. when we did this measurement what did we discover about what i have told you? woeful state connectivity. if we have statistically valid survey i think it was you krissah told me you were guessing it was about 400 libraries and i think i'm remembering right out of the 17,000 buildings we need to survey about 400 in order to

have a statistically valid survey. it's going to prove the status quo is really deficient. let's not talk about the size of e-rate. it's roughly $2.4 billion. it was said at $2.25 billion in 1997 but one of the things they regret is we did not put in a cpi inflator at the time when we set the number. excuses they don't stand up to scrutiny, it was a mistake. if we adjusted for inflation the e-rate would now be $3.5 billion. if we adjusted for the relative size of the economy now as opposed to what it was then the e-rate should be three to $3.75 billion. if we look back over the last 10 years into those adjustments and say what should've been the e-rate spending over the last 10 years we come to the following conclusion. we have a shortfall of $10 billion. that's how much the country owed

to itself and didn't pay. this is exact to the same infrastructure story that you see with respect to roads for dams or any other future in the public landscape. that's the reason why the connectivity is so woeful in the library buildings and classrooms today. we weren't spending that money for the last 10 years. if you say we just forgot that's not the reality of the story. the reality of the story is libraries and schools as always a ride in the middle of the culture wars in our country. that's the reality of the story. it's all well and good for me to tell you that we somehow manage to pull off the e-rate. from the minute the e-rate was passed there has been political opposition to the e-rate here in wash into d.c.. from that very minute. it was called the gore tax. there were ads that were run against it. there were attacks on the people who ran the original administrative structure the

person i recently appointed to run that program was personally attacked and vilified and accused of waste fraud and abuse which he did not commit and finally they drove him from office. that's why it ended up at usac usac. there were challenges to the constitutionality of the spending. i could go on and on but i'm saying to you all there is not a broad taste consensus in washington d.c. about what to do in this room there might be but when i say we need to step up our game it's because it is not fair to take the greatest visionary and leader at the fcc in this century tom wheeler and say thanks a lot, here's what we need. you are on your own. we need to be behind him supporting him and our time is short. i'm going to translate what tom said because it's really important. first of all the model is the marginal wi-fi user at peak hours.

it is not just broadband in the building but broadband in the building plus wi-fi in the building. we have to talk to them about it and everyone of our buildings. if someone is going to write the checks you don't go in and say i don't really like what you want to buy. besides you all know that this is the case you want to build for us so that's the data we have to give them. the second he told you he is not going to be funding pots as you were saying we have to have a transition plan either fast or little bit less fast but it has to have a because that's what he told you. next it's not just more money. why not later than june the fcc intends to insist that libraries figure out how to have consortium bidding. i'm just quoting here. we have to have longer time periods for these contracts. we have to have reference pricing so that nobody pays too

much. everybody pays the lowest reasonable price. we have to figure out how to provide i.t. experts are libraries that don't have i.t. experts. we can't have the nonexperts leapt out at told to fend for themselves or they pay too much and we have to have limited projects that run right away starting with the june order at the fcc that generate data so that by not later than the end of the year a more permanent program can be put in place. the reply comments on this topic are due on monday. we all should remember that if we don't hang together we are going to hang separately. we need to do a better job starting with me meeting and talking and figuring out what to say together and then when you all go to the hill in may and talk to all the members this has to be at the top of the list. all the institutions in the civic landscape libraries get

the smallest amount of money from the federal government. of all of them. smaller than schools, smaller than health care, smaller than any other situation you can think of in the social landscape. the total amount of money that ice on your budget i signed your budget viewer and power to transfer to state libraries, 155 million. that isn't even noticeable in the department of education budget. your agency didn't exist until 1997? >> and we wanted out. >> exact date. i have all these teachers and my family. i'm not saying anything against schools. those needs have to be met to map but this group needs to say what are our needs and we have to stand up and do the math. we have got the reply briefs due next monday. the first week in may under the leadership of john chambers over here at the fcc o