ALA Advocacy Alert-Net Neutrality!

FCC to meet on December 14^th to vote on Net Neutrality Proposal.

ALA’s Advocacy Activities

View the Meeting Agenda and Live Webcast of the FCC December 14^th meeting

What’s being discussed- FCC Order- “Restoring Internet Freedom”

Legislative Digest Fall 2017

NJ Libraries Construction Bond Act Passes!

Library Funding Ballot Question Passes with 60% of voters supporting the initiative.

NJ Libraries Build Communities

Topic of Interest! - Free Speech & Campus Communities

In the News!

Congress unlikely to push federal mandate on campus free speech

University of California Opens Center for Free Speech

Free Speech Debate Spreads to Stanford

Webinars, Podcasts, & Additional Resources

“So To Speak” Free Speech Podcast Latest episodes- “Berkeley then and now” and “Viewpoint diversity on campus”

“Student Rights, Protests, and Free Speech” ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom- Archived Webinar

Three new titles address the topic of Free Speech on Campus

Foundation for Individual Rights in Education “FIRE” NJ campus policy review Read the FIRE review of NJ campus policies

ALA Midwinter Event - ALA President’s Program- Are Libraries Neutral?

Visit the NJLA CUS/NJ ACRL Legislative Updates page for additional information and updates.

Have a Topic of Interest or a Legislative item you’d like to share? Send them to marksg@wpunj.edu

Gary Marks, Jr.

marksg@wpunj.edu

NJLA CUS/ NJ ACRL Legislative Representative

The NJLA CUS/ NJ ACRL Legislative Digest is for information purposes only. No endorsement of views expressed in any article or source is intended.

Legislative Digest Summer 2017

Congress may be on recess until after Labor Day, but there are still ways you can stay involved in advocacy during the month of August!

Telling the FCC to Save Net Neutrality

There's still time to submit a comment to the FCC in support of net neutrality! The deadline to submit a comment is August 16, 2017.

 Leave a Comment 

Net Neutrality Under Attack – NJLA Joins the Fight

On July 12, 2017, websites, Internet users, and online communities will come together to sound the alarm about the FCC’s attack on net neutrality. Learn how you can join the protest and spread the word at https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12/.

Why Librarians Must Fight for Net Neutrality
Our longstanding commitment to freedom of expression in the realm of content is well-known; in the context of the net neutrality debate, however, we believe it is equally important to stress that the freedom of libraries and librarians to provide innovative new kinds of information services will be central to the growth and development of our democratic culture. A world where librarians and other noncommercial enterprises are limited to the Internet’s “slow lanes” while high-definition movies can obtain preferential treatment overlooks a central priority for a democratic society – the necessity of enabling educators, librarians, and, in fact, all citizens to inform themselves and each other just as much as the major commercial and media interests can inform them.

The ability of the Internet to spread and share ideas is only getting better. With modern technology, individuals and small groups can produce rich audio and video resources that used to be the exclusive domain of large companies. We must work to ensure that these resources are not relegated to second-class delivery on the Internet—or else the intellectual freedoms fostered by the Internet will be constrained.

Why now? Right now, new FCC Chairman and former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai has a plan to destroy net neutrality and give big cable companies immense control over what we see and do online. If they get their way, the FCC will give companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T control over what we can see and do on the Internet, with the power to slow down or block websites and charge apps and sites extra fees to reach an audience.
 

But on July 12th, the Internet will come together to stop them. Websites, Internet users, and online communities will stand tall, and sound the alarm about the FCC’s attack on net neutrality.

The Battle for the Net campaign will provide tools for everyone to make it super easy for your friends, family, followers to take action.

NJLA joins ALA and countless other organizations across our country to protest these plans to dismantle net neutrality by participating in the Battle for the Net on July 12^th. Please join us.

Please also consider filing comments with the FCC opposing plans to dismantle net neutrality.  You can find guidance on how to do so at: https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/help-save-internet-fairness-net-neutrality/

Learn more and join the action here: https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12

Registration for National Library Legislative Day is now open! The event will be held on May 1-2, 2017 in Washington, DC. More information can be found here.

View the webinar "SSRN: Another Enclosure of the Commons" to learn more about the unannounced removal of articles on a popular open access repository, Social Science Research Network, after it was purchased by Elsevier. The webinar was originally webcast on October 6, 2016 by ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy's Copyright Education Subcommitee and presented by Michael Wolfe, Executive Director of the Authors Alliance.