Storm Clouds On The Horizon: CIPA and the Future of the Internet

Citation

Schneider, K. (2001), "Storm Clouds On The Horizon: CIPA and the Future of the Internet", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2001.23918caf.003

Storm Clouds On The Horizon: CIPA and the Future of the Internet

Karen Schneider

Most of the discussion about CIPA (the Children's Internet Protection Act) has focused on the immediate impact individual libraries would experience if forced to choose between filtering all public-access computers or giving up their E-Rate and LSTA funding.

There is poignancy in the picture of an individual library forced to decide between Internet access and open access, and many of us are moved by the idea of patrons who have nowhere else to go who cannot access the resources they need because the library has to filter in order to provide Internet access at all.

Yet as devastating CIPA would be on the local level, this legislation proposes an even greater threat: it may undermine decades of collective networking (in both the human and the technical sense) that have informed modern librarianship.

For many years, librarians have worked hard at building resource-sharing networks that in this digitized era have blossomed into consortia providing union catalogs, interlibrary loan, online databases, and of course, Internet access ­ all through one digital pipeline. In many cases it has made sense for consortia to become Internet Service Providers, aggregating service and cost issues into packages that usually bundle all library services into at-cost packages.

Regional and statewide consortia have played significant roles in bringing far-flung, rural libraries online, and these efforts have shaped our values as much as our values have shaped our efforts. Being librarians ­ stubbornly, willfully attached to the idea that all people will have access to information, no matter where they live ­ when we cannot wire buildings in faraway places, we deck out a cybermobile with laptops and cellular access and drive it out to where our patrons are, from the wilds of Australia to the rolling hills of upstate New York. As a profession, we are nearly unique in the depth of our willingness and ability to reach out to everyone we serve.

Yet we could not always afford the level of telecommunications access we knew our communities needed. For many of us, technology-based expenditures have come on top of stagnant budgets and demands for other library services. The Internet has been another mouth to feed, and like all children, it turns out to be more expensive than you think it is going to be. Just when we're really fed up, or we think we can't afford any more new services, we learn all over again how important our access is ­ for example, the Gates Foundation revealed at a PLA session this spring that in three states, between 23 and 31 percent of all people surveyed relied on libraries for their Internet access. With sparkling eyes, we saddle our donkeys and gallop full tilt at yet another digital windmill. We are such apostles of access!

Then E-Rate came along. E-Rate money allowed libraries with slow lines to upgrade, freed up money for more investments in technology, and helped consortia bring more libraries online. In poor areas, E-Rate can provide up to 90 percent discounts on telecommunications services, but even many comfortably-middle-class library districts receive double-digit discounts. The paperwork is clumsy, the rules are arcane, and the system is biased toward larger systems with the resources to wade through bureaucratic minutia, but if you qualify for discounted Internet access, it's quite a savings. In our own automation consortia, E-Rate underwrites 20 percent of the cost of providing technology to our member libraries. 20 percent of anything is a massive chunk of change, and it's much bigger in a typical bare-bones not-for-profit environment.

If you think E-Rate can be useful for one library, look at Wisconsin, where a statewide E-Rate program saves libraries almost $2 million, or 53 percent, over the state contract price ­ let alone what libraries would pay commercial service providers! Any library can get a DS1 line for $100 a month. And I haven't even begun to discuss LSTA and ESEA funds ­ which are also tied to filtering in the CIPA legislation.

But there never really is a free lunch, is there? Almost overnight, after 100 years of relying almost exclusively on local support for library services, we had entered a dependent relationship with the federal government. Services we now take for granted are part of a conduit of federal aid which turns out to be a convenient tool for twisting our collective arms.

Now it appears we must filter for our supper, or go unfed.

Learning The Wrong Lessons

Maybe the hardest part about CIPA is that we are learning the wrong lessons.

We are learning to be suspicious of federal funding, even though other major US institutions, such as higher education, have always relied on this source of income. Major problems in our profession, such as the salaries and working conditions of library employees, may never be fully addressed if we continue to be so heavily reliant on local funding. And if we take a truly giant step backward in technology funding at this cusp in the evolution of information services, our libraries may never recover, and we would soon be extinct.

We are learning that aggregating our efforts can be dangerous ­ or at worse incredibly inconvenient. Suddenly the fate of dozens of libraries can be in the hands of a consortium, which in most cases would rather not be making policy on behalf of their libraries in the first place. As I was asked by Eileen Palmer, Deputy Director for Member Services, The Library Network (MI), "Do we (the consortia) want to be the CIPA police?"

Even the nuisance factor will be daunting. Eileen continued, "what do we do if some will and some won't?" I can't wait to sit through those meetings. Bob Bocher, Library Technology Consultant for the state of Wisconsin, pointed out that "from an internal management perspective the Wis E-rate applicationincludes about 670 libraries and schools ... just tracking which ones are opting out ... will be messy at best." Not to mention the Solomon-like decisions of libraries who in refusing to change their policy on filtering and going with their own ISP suddenly realize that they no longer have an integrated library system because theirs had been delivered over consortial IP-based networks. Catalogs ...circulation systems ... shared databases ... all are held hostage by CIPA. (Did you actually discard those card catalogs, or are they in the storage shed ...?)

Finally, and perhaps most ironically, we ­ who almost alone in our commerce-crazy era, have stood for the value of government services ­ are learning that government is not our friend. While talking about CIPA to our library board, I noticed one member was unusually quiet. After an hour, he commented, "they're going right over our head and making policy in Washington." Suddenly, it's us versus them. When "they" of the Beltway begin touting the benefits of national information infrastructures, next-generation Internet, or any other major and collective project, we may well react with suspicion if not cynicism. And what will they tie that to, I hear librarians ask.

I had a hard time finishing this column because after several minutes of writing my hands would shake with anger. As one of the earliest pied pipers of the Internet in libraries, I have a high investment in ensuring Internet access is freely accessible. Your library may choose to provide filtered access alongside unfiltered access; that is your decision. Your neighbor in the next district may choose otherwise. Respect for our mutual decisions is part of our culture. But it is cruel and unfair ­ not to mention demeaning and patronizing ­ for the federal government to bypass the hard work we have put in to providing Internet access for our communities and dictate censored access for all. Shoulder to the wheel: we must defeat CIPA!

Karen Schneider (kgs@bluehighways.com) is Director of Technology for the Shenendehowa Public Library in Clifton Park, New York.