Internet Access Gap Closing, but Other Inequities Remain

"For eighth-grader Dale Willis Jr., getting Internet access at home means no longer having to wait in line at the library for less than a half-hour at the computer. It means no longer scheduling his school day around teachers' availability to supervise -- and no more mockery from classmates....

Willis, 13, exemplifies the difference having Internet access at home can make. If people without home access are classified as disadvantaged, the "digital divide" is much larger than what recent studies suggest....

While overall home access reached 44 percent of the U.S. population in 2001, minorities and lower-income Americans were less likely to have it, according to Commerce.  For example, half of blacks and Hispanics who use the Internet at public libraries can't log on from home, compared with only 30 percent of whites and 22 percent of Asians.

Among all kids ages 10 to 17, less than one-third of blacks and Hispanics have access at home while at least two-thirds of whites and Asians had it.  Schools, libraries and community centers can be important for training people so they feel comfortable enough to eventually own a computer....

The current criteria of measuring the digital divide through access alone grew out of comparisons between the Internet and the telephone -- a device with fewer functions, noted Andrew Blau, a technology consultant who advises nonprofit groups.

A better approach, he said, is to compare Internet use with literacy.

Comparing access 'does a real disservice to understanding and seeing the real issues,' he said. 'We don't think, 'If everyone had a book, they would be literate.' " [at the Portsmouth Herald, via h₂0boro lib blog]

Everybody, put your hands together for Teri! Her article Today's PDAs Can Put OPAC in the Palm of Your Hand is now available in this month's issue of Computers in Libraries, and it includes a mention of Lori's work, too. Way to go, Teri!

"The most exciting of these combination PDA/bar code scanner devices, I think, is 3M's Digital Library Assistant or 'Palm-on-a-Stick.' When you've put Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags into your books, this tool can locate items in the stacks, so you can use it for shelf-reading and weeding, and for finding books and correcting circulation data. For instance, think of the classic case of a patron claiming that he's returned a book, but your system shows it's still checked out and overdue. You've checked the stacks and not found it, but perhaps it's only been mis-shelved. You can code the RFID number into the hand-held device, then go to the stacks and wave it across the shelves. When it reads the tag you're looking for, it will sound off to let you know. Book found, patron absolved. This product and the other pieces of the Digital Identification System have been beta tested at the University of Nevada Las Vegas....

Some of the vendors have already started trying. Innovative Interfaces, Inc. has two wireless products, according to III product manager John McCullough. The AirPAC is a stand-alone alternate OPAC product, designed for users of wireless devices. It is in its last round of testing and is being used by Boulder Public Library to provide services for patrons with cellphones that use the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). In addition, Innovative Interfaces is currently developing an infrared beaming product to help patrons of libraries that use Innovative's Millennium product line. This upcoming product will probably be available sometime after the fall of 2002. We can probably expect to seemore of these kinds of add-on software programs in the future...." [via ...useless miscellany]

I've been volunteering SLS to beta test the infrared beaming with Palms for-freaking-ever.

The Shy Librarian - Free Issue

"In celebration of the one-year anniversary of The Shy Librarian, the entire Spring 2002 issue is being made available in PDF form." [Library Stuff]

This particular issue includes a write-up of Boston Public Library's successful ad campaign. I remember reading an article about two television commercials the Library produced. If memory serves, one included Peter Wolf from the J. Geils Band, a high cool factor for anyone my age, and a second one that showed the Mayor of Boston giving a speech. I never saw it, but supposedly he has to deal with a heckler who wants him to take on Giuliani and tell him that Boston's Library is better than New York City's Library. Good stuff.

The Face of the Net is A-changin'

"By 2006, the majority of online shoppers in the United States are likely to be over the age of 35, and one-third will be 50 or older, Jupiter said. By comparison, only 16 percent of the online shopping population is 50 or older today....

'You look at the numbers and there really isn't that much of a digital divide anymore, and it's closed so quickly,' said Arrison, whose public policy analysis firm advocates limiting government regulation of business.

Access to the Internet, either through home, work, school or the library, spread to 50 million people between 1996 and 2000--many times faster than the spread of television, radio and the PC when they were introduced, Arrison said." [CNET News.com]

Isn't it funny how older users are considered to be a good thing for the Internet, but bad for television? Seriously though, will we continue to see the digital divide close once the Bush administration dismantles the programs that spurred the bridge in the first place?

Google Time Bomb

"Google and Weblogs seem inextricably tied together, as link-rich blogs are increasingly influencing the algorithms of Google's search engine. [See our article last week on this very subject.]

But with great power comes great responsibility... and the weblog community is only now beginning to come to terms with a new application that subverts the very technology that powers Google, the world's favorite search engine....

If the Church of Scientology can foil Google, then Google Bombs - especially ones based on blogrolling - could potentially have a serious and long-term impact on Google rankings.

This has serious implications for the future of Google Bombs.

One or two people linkblogging some Google Bombs isn't going to make a big difference in Google ranks in the long term. But teams of people working together to blogroll Google Bombs could have a serious and long-term impact on Google rankings.

Sooner or later, these teams of people will emerge... and when they do, their collective power on Google will be staggering.

Google, you'd better start watching out for these "Bomb Squads." Weblogs can help filter billions of webpages for you... but they could also help destroy the very technology that Google is based on!" [at Microcontent News, via John Robb's Radio Weblog]

John says this isn't a scandal and that he loves Google just the way it is but being a librarian, I have to stick up for information retrieval and respectfully disagree. When I talked about the phenomenon of Google time bombs at the Tech Summit last week, it was to a room full of library directors, reference librarians, and school librarians. When I described Google bombs, there was a very audible gasp that rippled through the room. I expect an uproar to hit the library press over the summer (it takes a while for us to get our print machine rolling).

While there's something inherently appealing in being able to hijack Jack Valenti in Google's algorithm, I really shouldn't be able to do it technologically. I'd love to be second, third, fourth, and fifth, but Google was and should remain smart enough to pick out the most important content, not link.

The idea of "money bombs" (paid google bombing to bring your site or a competitor's up to #1) is an even scarier thought to those of us who search for a living. Why would this be any more acceptable than pay-for-placement schemes? "Justice bombs" are interesting (morally I like the links for the Daniel Pearl Videotape and the R. Kelly Videotape), but what about the kid that's doing research trying to find media stories and blogger insights about these tapes (not watch them). I know he'll probably find relevant info further down, but lots of folks don't go beyond 20 or 30 results these days, and at the core, it's still messing with the playing field.

And heaven forbid the government was to get involved in this. What if the Bush administration starts Google bombing their own PR stories? Google issue or candidate bombing would be incredibly detrimental to the authority, accuracy, and authenticity of the information we find through that search engine. If this becomes too rampant, librarians will drop Google faster than Bush dropped Christie Whitman.

All your search are belong to us, indeed!

Lori P. would like to find out if anyone knows of libraries that are using scanned images of book covers on their web sites, whether they scan them in themselves or "steal" them from Amazon, the publisher, etc. If you know of any, please contact her!

White House Spurns Tech Programs Left Over from Clinton Presidency

"Only those with 'an unreal understanding' of U.S. capitalism would expect the poor, minorities and rural residents to immediately have the same access to the Internet as other Americans, the nation’s top telecommunications regulator has said. Government efforts to bridge the divide, he added, veer toward 'socialization.'

THE SKEPTICISM EXPRESSED last year by Michael Powell, the Bush appointee who is chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, plainly seems to be shared by the rest of the administration. Breaking with Clinton administration policy, the Bush team has set about quietly dismantling many programs devoted to ending the so-called digital divide....

Earlier this month, an NTIA report showed the growth in Internet usage among poor and minority Americans far exceeded that for wealthy, white or Asian Americans. Web use among blacks and Hispanics, for instance, grew by 33% and 30%, respectively, between August 2000 and September 2001, while the growth rate for whites and Asians was 20%. To the administration, this is evidence of a narrowing digital divide, undercutting the argument for more federal help.

Some Democrats drew a different conclusion. While growth rates for Web use are indeed higher for those on the wrong side of the divide, those groups started from so far down that the gap is wider than ever. For instance, the report found that in 1997, 10% of Americans earning less than $25,000 a year used the Web, compared with 45% of those earning more than $75,000 — a gap of 35 percentage points. By 2001, despite the progress in both groups, the gap was 50 percentage points.

Shortly after taking office, Bush officials said they would fulfill a campaign promise effectively eliminating the FCC’s popular e-rate program, which Mr. Gore had promoted and which reimbursed schools and libraries for as much as 90% of the cost of Internet access. Instead, the administration proposed block grants for the states from the Education Department, combining funds that otherwise would have gone for the e-rate program with those for other education-technology programs.

The administration’s most controversial move is its proposal to eliminate the small TOP program of grants to state and local-government agencies and nonprofit groups. Last year, the Bush administration had proposed slashing its funding, once as much as $45 million, to $15 million.
The TOP program was designed to provide matching grant money for technology projects at schools, libraries, health agencies, police departments and nonprofits.

Ms. Victory cites other proposals in the Bush budget for fiscal 2003 — among them, technology grants of as much as $1 billion for the Education Department, $1 billion for the Justice Department and $100 million for rural telecommunications through the Agriculture Department. She concedes most programs that have received TOP funds could be bypassed by the new block grants, since local and state officials would be largely free to use the money as they like." [at MSNBC, via Dave Farber's Interesting People list]

Apologies for the excessive quoting, but MSNBC articles don't hang around and this is an incredibly important topic. Here's the thing.

These moves are devastating to public libraries. If you take away nothing else from my site, please understand how dependent libraries are on public monies, and the incredible breadth and depth of what our culture receives in return. We don't have pledge drives like NPR, we don't get royalties on products, and it's pretty rare for a millionaire to leave us money. In fact, I'm going to dig up all of the truly-amazing-your-jaw-will-drop statistics and post them at some point.

The Bush administration's current tap-dancing will make things even worse. While transferring monies to the Department of Education or state education agencies may have some benefits for schools (and hence for school and academic libraries), it will cut public libraries out of the money loop. Public libraries in this country are generally NOT part of the Department of Education at the state or federal level. Library systems are NOT part of the education infrastructure.

And if you want to see the digital divide up close and personal, visit your local public library. Especially in a big city, but it reaches to rural areas, too. Public libraries teach internet classes to more people than you realize. In Illinois, the E-rate program has allowed us to build the Illinois Century Network, a high-speed backbone for libraries throughout the State. Public libraries can join for a reduced rate than what they were paying Ameritech for slower access.

Without these monies, public libraries won't be able to maintain even the current levels, especially in respect to grants and collaborative partnerships. With tax caps in place in Illinois, it's difficult for PLs to get any additional revenue these days. I have lots of great ideas I want to see happen in libraries, but the reality is that it takes public money and grant money to do these kinds of things because our budgets are already strained. In dismantling these initiatives, the Bush administration is doing more than just retarding the current status of library funding. This will affect millions of people in the long run, people who have nowhere else to turn but their local public library.

Camworld: "Hmmm, would it be useful to be able to use your cell phone to scan bar-codes? I think so. A few years back when I was working at Borders.com we were pushing hard for the management to accept the idea of letting customers in the stores use portable bar-code scanners to build a "digital library" (by walking around the store and scanning books, movies and music) that they could then upload to their Borders.com user profile at one of the Internet-enabled kiosks that were being installed into the stores. Needless to say the management looked at us like we were insane but it's still a good idea and as technology like this becomes more an more integrated into everything we do, we'll probably start to see more retail stores adapt technology like this to provide cool differentiating services or their customers."

This is truly an excellent idea, and I'm surprised Borders didn't go for it (and still hasn't apparently). When I go there, I take my Palm and make a list of what I've found, but then I take that data with me and often I order from Amazon or Ingram using it. If Borders let me scan the ISBNs and UPC codes, they could be part of that loop and help me create and maintain my Amazon-like wish list on their site.

It's also an excellent idea for libraries. Everybody derided the CueCats, but I saw potential for libraries. If you could scan the code for any book, CD, movie, etc. and have that search the online catalog or create a wish list within the catalog, that could have been helpful for patrons. We could then help them find relevant links and items based on those items. We could also made the process for requesting an item or putting a hold on an item that much easier.

In the scenario in the article Cam points to, it would be interesting to keep libraries in that loop so that you could scan a product's barcode and then read the review, whether it's from Consumer Reports in the library's database offerings, a book review, a music review, or a company history. Or search the library's catalog and "check out" the digital file on loan for two weeks (ebooks, MP3s, digital video, etc.). With GPS required in cell phones for future E-911 services, it would be relatively easy to zero in on your local library's services.

Very cool - Fifteenth-century Book Found in Farmhouse

"What the book dealer didn't know right away was that she had the 'Nuremberg Chronicle,' a 500-year-old history of the world considered a milestone in the history of printing....

Back in Pribyl's Camden shop, a query on the Internet revealed that the book, printed some 50 years later, was the 'Nuremberg Chronicle,' a work largely considered the greatest illustrated book of its time.

'All you have to do is type in 'Books Published in 1493.' There are not a whole lot of them,' Pribyl said.

Bibliophiles at the Camden Public Library, where the owner allowed the book to be displayed before taking it home, certainly were charmed. Some gathered around as Ellen Dyer, the library's archivist, donned white cotton gloves and turned the rag paper pages." [CNN]