C&RL News October 2014 522

Jazzy Wright is press officer of the ALA Washington 
Office, e-mail: jwright@alawash.org

W a s h i n g t o n  H o t l i n eJazzy Wright

Presidential Contender Sen. Jim Webb, 
FCC leaders address ALA Annual 
Conference
During this year’s 2014 ALA Annual Con-
ference, former Virginia Senator Jim Webb 
discussed the upcoming national election 
season and the ways that the elections will 
affect libraries and library funding. During 
the conference, the Washington Office se-
cured a video from Chairman of the Federal 
Communications Commission Tom Wheeler. 

In the video, the chairman speaks about 
the changing nature of libraries today, 
emphasizing the importance of providing 
access to digital resources, technology, and 
free public Wi-Fi. Finally, Gigi Sohn, special 
counsel for External Affairs to Wheeler, met 
with Public Library Association leadership, 
representatives from the Chief Officers of 
State Library Agencies, the Association for 
Rural and Small Libraries, the OITP Advisory 
Committee, and the ALA E-rate task force 
to discuss e-rate details and the nature of 
library services in today’s and tomorrow’s 
libraries.

Workforce bill finally passes
In July, President Barack Obama signed 
the Workforce Innovation and Opportu-
nity Act, a law that will open access to 
federal funding support to public libraries 
for effective job training and job search 
programs. ALA President Courtney Young 
applauded the presidential signing of the 
bill in a statement. ALA thanks Senator Jack 
Reed (D-RI) and Representative Rush Holt 
(D-NJ) for their efforts to include libraries 
in the legislation.

Nearly 100 percent of libraries offer 
tech training and workforce programs, 
study finds
According to a new ALA study, nearly 100 

percent of America’s public libraries offer 
workforce development training programs, 
online job resources, and technology skills 
training. 

Overall, libraries report technology im-
provements—including nearly ubiquitous 
public Wi-Fi, growing mobile resources, 
and a leap in e-book access—but ALA’s 
2014 Digital Inclusion Survey also docu-
ments digital differences among states and 
an urban/rural divide. 

The Digital Inclusion Survey is man-
aged by the ALA Office of Research and 
Statistics; the ALA Office for Information 
Technology Policy is a partner of the re-
search project.

ALA welcomes forward movement on 
e-rate modernization
In July, the FCC voted to release the first 
Order as part of its e-rate modernization 
proceeding. “This Order represents a solid 
first step toward increasing library partici-
pation in the E-rate program and moving 
our communities toward the gigabit speeds 
increasingly needed to support Wi-Fi, digital 
learning and multimedia collections,” said 
ALA President Courtney Young in a state-
ment.

Over-filtering in schools and libraries 
harms education, new ALA report 
finds
Schools and libraries nationwide are rou-
tinely filtering Internet content far more 
than what the Children’s Internet Protec-
tion Act requires, according to “Fencing 
Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s 
Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later,” a 
report released by the ALA Office for In-
formation Technology Policy and the ALA 
Office for Intellectual Freedom. 

“Fencing Out Knowledge” is based on 
a year-long study that included a two-day 
symposium during the Summer of 2013 and 
other research.