C&RL News June 2015 342

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

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

ALA welcomes White House’s 
ConnectED: Library Challenge
In late April, the White House announced 
the launch of ConnectED: Library Chal-
lenge, a new initiative to ensure that all 
school students receive public library cards 
through their schools. 

ALA President Courtney Young responded 
to the launch of the initiative by calling on 
school and public library leaders to work 
collaboratively with school administrators 
and civic leaders to ensure that each and 
every student has a public library card. The 
Institute of Museum and Library Services will 
convene a meeting of the national library, 
government, and school leaders to discuss 
best practices for developing and implement-
ing school-public library card programs in 
their local districts.

Library broadband speed test shows 
increased capacity; room still for 
improvement
Broadband speeds in U.S. public libraries 
have improved significantly in recent years 
yet continue to lag behind national broad-
band connectivity standards, according to 
“Broadband Quality in Public Libraries,” a 
new supplementary report released jointly 
in April by ALA and the Information Policy 
and Access Center at the University of 
Maryland-College Park as part of the Digital 
Inclusion Survey. 

Libraries reported progress in their public 
Internet speeds—nearly half of all libraries 
report subscribed Internet download speeds 
as being greater than 10 Mbps in 2013, com-
pared with only 18 percent of libraries four 
years earlier. Despite the growth in increased 

broadband capacity, two-thirds of all libraries 
indicate that they would like to improve their 
broadband speeds.

Library Copyright Alliance applauds 
introduction of the Barriers to 
Innovation Act
In April, the Library Copyright Alliance ap-
plauded the introduction of the Barriers to 
Innovation Act of 2015 in the U.S. Senate 
and U.S. House of Representatives. The 
bill would address serious problems with 
the rulemaking process under the Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act. It also would 
correct deficiencies in several of the exist-
ing exceptions to the Digital Millennium 
Copyright Act (DMCA). Under current law, 
the DMCA could be understood as prohib-
iting the circumvention of technological 
protection measures or “digital locks” for 
noninfringing purposes.

Congress introduces USA FREEDOM 
Act
In April, Congress introduced the USA 
FREEDOM Act, a bill that will improve the 
balance between terrorism prevention and 
personal privacy protection in the U.S. 
House and the U.S. Senate. 

ALA President Courtney Young responded 
to the USA FREEDOM Act of 2015, saying 
that “the latest USA FREEDOM Act is a long 
way from perfect, but ALA believes that—if 
enacted as introduced or improved—it will 
make important changes in the USA PATRIOT 
Act critical to making progress on what will 
be a long road to restoring library users’ and 
all Americans’ civil liberties.” 

ALA opposed Senate Majority Leader Mitch 
McConnell’s (R-KY) bill (S. 103) to reauthorize 
the “library provision,” Section 215, of the 
USA PATRIOT Act until 2020.