NREN, Jean Armour Polly [nice books to read .txt] 📗

NREN for All: Insurmountable Opportunity

c. 1993 Jean Armour Polly Manager of Network Development and User Training NYSERNet, Inc. jpolly@nysernet.org

This was originally published in the February 1, 1993 issue of Library Journal (volume 118, n. 2, pp 38-41). It may be freely reprinted for educational use, please let me know if you are redistributing it, I like to know if it’s useful and where it’s been. Please do not sell it, and keep this message intact.

When Senator Al Gore was evangelizing support for his visionary National Research and Education Network bill, he often pointed to the many benefits of a high-speed, multi-lane, multi-level data superhighway. Some of these included:

— collaborating research teams, physically distant from each other, working on shared projects via high speed computer networks. Some of these “grand challenges” might model global environmental change, or new therapeutic drug research, or the design of a new airplane for inexpensive consumer air travel.

— a scientist or engineer might design a product, which could be instantly communicated to a manufacturing plant, whose robotic machine could turn the drawing-board product into reality. One example of this is the capability to digitally measure a new recruit for an army uniform, transmit the information to a clothing manufacturer, and take delivery of a custom-tailored uniform the next day.

— access to digital libraries of information, both textual and graphic. Besides hundreds of online public access catalogs, and full text documents, color illustrations of photographic quality, full motion videos and digital audio will also be available over the network.

In his many articles and speeches touting the bill, Gore often used an example of a little girl, living in a rural area, at work on a school project. Was she information-poor due to her physical location, far from the resources of large cities? No— the National Research and Education Network would give her the capability to dial into the Library of Congress— to collect information on dinosaurs.

Now that the NREN bill has been signed into law (12/91), and committees are being formed, and policies are being made, I’m still thinking about that little girl, and her parents, for that matter. In fact I’ve got some “Grand Questions” to pose.

1-How will we get access?

The Internet has been called the “Interim NREN”, since it’s what we have in place now.

I’m wondering how the family is going to get to the Internet “dial tone”, let alone the NREN, especially since they live in a rural area. The information superhighway may be miles from their home, and it may be an expensive long-distance call to the “entrance ramp”.

Or, the superhighway may run right through their front yard, but they can’t make use of it because they have no computer, no modem, and no phone line to make the connection. What good is a superhighway if all you’ve got is a tricycle?

2-What will they be able to gain access to, and will their privacy be protected?

Beyond the infrastructure issues, I’m concerned about what kind of things will be available for them once they do get connected, how the resources will be arranged, and how they will learn to use these tools to advantage. Beyond that, how authoritative is the information in the digital collection, and how do we know for sure it came from a legitimate source? How confidential will their information searches be, and how will it be safeguarded?

3-Who will get access?

I’m concerned that even if the infrastructure and resource problems are resolved, that little girl still won’t be allowed access, because a lot of folks don’t think the Internet is a safe place for unaccompanied minors.

4-Does the family have any electronic rights? Electronic responsibilities? Are dinosaurs and a grade-school project too trivial for NREN?

Some people think the NREN should be reserved for scientists working on “Grand Challenges”, not ordinary ones. Who will decide what constitutes “acceptable use”?

5-What is the future of the local public library?

Worse yet, I’m worried that the reason they are phoning the Library of Congress in the first place is that their local public library has shut its doors, sold off the book stock, and dismissed the librarian. What can public libraries do to avoid that future?

Brief Background: The Internet Today

Computers all over the world are linked by high speed telecommunications lines. On the other side of their screens are people of all races and nationalities who are able to exchange ideas quickly through this network.

This “brain to brain” interface brings both delight and despair, as evidenced by the following True Tales from the Internet:

— Children all over the world participate in class collaborations, sharing holiday customs, local food prices, proverbs, acid rain measurements, and surveys such as a recent one from a fifth grade class in Argentina who wanted to know (among other things) “Can you wear jeans to school?”.

— During the Soviet coup in the summer of 1991, hundreds read eyewitness accounts of developments posted to the net by computer users in Moscow and other Soviet cities with network connectivity. A literal hush fell over this side of the network after a plea came across from the Soviet side. We appreciate your messages of encouragement and offers of help, it said, but please save the bandwidth for our outgoing reports!

- Proliferation of discussion groups on the Internet means one can find a niche to discuss everything from cats to Camelot, from library administration to lovers of mysteries, from Monty Python to Medieval History.

— Predictably, Elvis has been sighted on the Internet.

Besides electronic mail, full text resources may be downloaded from many Internet host computers. Some of these are religious materials, such as the Bible, and the Koran, others are the complete works of Shakespeare, Peter Pan, and Far From the Madding Crowd.

Searchable resources include lyrics from popular songs, chord tablature for guitar, recipes, news articles, government information, Supreme Court Opinions, census data, current and historical weather information, dictionaries, thesauri, the CIA World Fact Book, and much more.

Hundreds of library OPACS may be searched, and those with accounts set up at CARL may use UnCover to find articles of interest, which then may be faxed on demand.

The richness of the Internet changes on a daily basis as more data resources, computer resources, and human resources join those already active on the net.

But, back to that little girl.

How will she get access?

She’ll need a plain old telephone line, a modem, a computer, and some communications software. Will her family be able to afford it? If not, will she be able to dial in from her school? Her Post Office? The local feed store? A kiosk at K-Mart?

At the American Library Association’s 1992 convention in San Francisco, Gloria Steinem said “the public library is the last refuge of those without modems.” I’m sure she meant that the library will act as information provider for those unable to get their information using a home computer’s telecommunications connections. But it could be taken another way. Couldn’t the public library act as electronic information access centers, providing public modems and telecommunications alongside the books and videos?

Why the Public Library is a good place for NREN access

The public library is an institution based on long-standing beliefs in intellectual freedom and the individual’s right to know. Let’s revisit ALA’s LIBRARY BILL OF RIGHTS, Adopted June 18, 1948; amended February 2, 1961, and January 23, 1980, by the ALA Council.

The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.

1. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

No problem here. The Internet’s resources are as diverse as their creators, from nations all over the world. Every community can find something of interest on the Internet.

2. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

3. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

4. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

Again, global electronic communication allows discussion and debate in an instant electronic forum. There is no better “reality check” than this.

5. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

In a public library, the little girl won’t be barred from using the Internet because of her age. The ALA interpretation of the above right states: “Librarians and governing bodies should not resort to age restrictions on access to library resources in an effort to avoid actual or anticipated objections from parents or anyone else. The mission, goals, and objectives of libraries do not authorize librarians or governing bodies to assume, abrogate, or overrule the rights and responsibilities of parents or legal guardians. Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents - and only parents - have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children - and only their children - to library resources. Parents or legal guardians who do not want their children to have access to certain library services, materials or facilities, should so advise their children. Librarians and governing bodies cannot assume the role of parents or the functions of parental authority in the private relationship between parent and child. Librarians and governing bodies have a public and professional obligation to provide equal access to all library resources for all library users.”

6. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.”

The Internet provides the equivalent of electronic meeting rooms and virtual exhibit spaces. Public libraries will offer access to all comers, regardless of their status.

Further, as part of the Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, this statement appears: “The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that `the right to receive ideas follows ineluctably from the sender’s First Amendment right to send them… . More importantly, the right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient’s meaningful exercise of his own rights such as speech, press, and political freedom’ Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853, 866-67 (1982) (plurality opinion).”

Clearly, reception and sending of ideas is a First Amendment issue. Oral, written, and electronic speech must be equally protected so that democracy may flourish.

Public libraries also provide “free” services, though in fact the costs are just deferred. Taxes, state aid derived from taxes, federal aid derived from taxes, and private funds all pay for the “free” services at public libraries. Public libraries may be thought of as Information Management Organizations (IMO’s), similar to Health Management Organizations, where patrons/patients contribute before they need information/health care, so that when they do need it, librarians/doctors are available to render aid.

Why NREN in the Public Library is a bad idea

On the surface, the public library looks like an excellent place to drop Internet/NREN connectivity. Libraries are veritable temples of