Year archives: 2017

First Lifeline, Now Broadband Program for Schools and Libraries in the FCC’s Crosshairs

In a previous article here on LLRX, Gigi Sohn wrote about how the new Federal Communications Commission majority revoked the approval of nine companies to become Lifeline providers and how that would weaken the Lifeline program and widen the digital divide. Sohn follows up with a discussion of how the E-Rate program, which makes broadband services more affordable for America’s schools and libraries, is in the FCC majority’s crosshairs. And much like the case of Lifeline, Sohn argues the majority is using procedural steps and administrative tools to weaken the E-Rate program.

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Subjects: Communications, Communications Law, Economy, Education, Government Resources, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians

Defending the Indefensible: Chairman Pai’s Lifeline Reversal Will Widen the Digital Divide

Lifeline is one of four FCC programs intended to ensure that all Americans have access to modern communications. This article by Gigi Sohn, who served as Counselor to the Chairman in the Office of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler until December 2016, elucidates how the new FCC majority fundamentally dislikes the Lifeline Program and will seek to weaken it by any means possible. She begins her discourse with a primer on the Lifeline program to allow researchers to educate themselves with the facts as the battle over dismantling this program evolves.

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Subjects: Bridging the digital divide, Communications Law, Economy, Education, Government Resources, Legal Research

Can current antitrust law deal with Amazon?

Chris Meadows calls our attention to a Yale Law Journal by Lina M. Khan published in January 2017 titled Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox. The author presents an argument in favor of modifying antitrust law in light of the realm of competition created by a burgeoning, powerful and often narrow group of players in specific e-commerce marketplaces. For librarians, researchers, professors and student among others, the issue of pricing and competition in the ebook market is particularly salient.

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Subjects: E-Books, E-Commerce, Legal Research, Libraries & Librarians, Publishing & Publishers (Legal)

How the national library endowment will work

This is an introduction to a critical effort to support local public libraries throughout the United States, not in competition with any other efforts, programs or initiatives, but with the goal to fund a robust, long lived and essential endowment in response to ongoing defunding of critical library staffing and resources in our communities, especially poor land rural localities.

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Subjects: Digital Archives, E-Books, Economy, Education, Librarian Resources, Libraries & Librarians, Library Software & Technology

Academic and Scholar Search Engines and Sources 2017

From arenas that encompass government, research, academic, international, health and medicine, science and technology, economics and finance, libraries and open source collections around the world, Marcus Zillman has compiled a benchmark resource on search engines from which researchers may choose to support a wide range of projects, programs and publications.

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Subjects: Internet Resources - Web Links, Librarian Resources, Search Engines, Search Strategies

Search Warrant Issued For Amazon Echo Data

An Amazon Echo device is the subject of a prosecutor’s search warrant related to an Arkansas murder case. Nicole Black illuminates how such devices are complicating issues related to consumer privacy and vendor responses to search warrants. The ubiquity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in homes will no doubt result in more warrants for the data they collect.

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Subjects: Criminal Law, Discovery, Gadgets, Legal Research, Privacy

Library Services for People with Memory Loss, Dementia, and Alzheimers

Sarah Houghton organized a training for library staff throughout her county from the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and a stellar local senior non-profit named Senior Access dedicated to serving residents with memory loss issues. This training was inspired by two things: in her year in the San Rafael Leadership Institute when her class project was raising funds for Senior Access, and a demographic study from the Association of Bay Area Governments that highlighted Marin County’s median age compared to regional, state, and national norms.

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Subjects: Education, Healthcare, KM, Libraries & Librarians
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