[Publib] ALA/OITP Report on Regional Library Coops and Broadband

[Bocher, Robert DPI]

FYI:

Last December ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) held an invitational meeting in Denver focused on the role of regional library cooperatives in supporting broadband services to their member libraries.  This meeting was a follow-up to the OITP report on Public Library Connectivity released in July 2007 (http://www.ala.org/ala/washoff/oitp/papersa/public_version_final.pdf).  A key finding of the July report was that regional library cooperatives often have a major role in ensuring that their libraries have adequate bandwidth and technical assistance to support Internet access and other services.  The report of the December meeting is linked on the ALA Washington Office Dispatch site at http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=465.  OITP will continue its work on issues related to obtaining and sustaining adequate bandwidth in our public libraries.

       -Bob,  Chair, OITP Subcommittee on Telecommunications
________________________________
  Bob Bocher, Technology Consultant
  WI Dept. of Public Instruction
  Division for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning
  608-266-2127 - NEW EMAIL 1/08  robert.bocher at dpi.wi.gov