Libraries Hope Stimulus Will Boost Fiber Deployment
Public libraries are on the offensive, making a case to the NTIA and the RUS for a significant share of the $7.2 billion in federal broadband money to connect most libraries to high-speed fiber. Connecting the country’s more than 16,500 public libraries would cost an estimated $20,000 each, about $331 million total, said President John Windhausen of Telepoly, a telecom consultancy working with the American Library Association. More-remote libraries would cost closer to $40,000 to connect, and urban ones near fiber rings about $10,000, he said.
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The biggest obstacle to the library system’s getting stimulus money is the “impression that the Internet has made libraries less important,” Windhausen said. As the economic downturn continues and job losses increase, the library has become a new resource for many who can’t pay for their own Internet connections, so library visits and card registrations have increased dramatically, according to the association.
“Millions of people are turning to public libraries right now,” said Emily Sheketoff, head of the ALA Washington office. “This is where many come to apply for jobs, to find out where [jobs] are, how to get money to send kids to college.” The library system will need a serious upgrade to remain the major source of free Internet in the country, Sheketoff said, and fiber is particularly important for libraries to handle higher speeds in the future. Using fiber can prevent making a “decision in 2009” that libraries will outgrow in 2011, she said. Only about 3 percent of public libraries have connections capable of 100 Mbps, according to filings to the NTIA and the RUS by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The NTIA and the RUS should give applicants that include connecting anchor institutions, such as libraries, a higher score, especially because libraries are among the few institutions mentioned in NTIA’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, Windhausen said. One of the program’s mandates is to provide broadband to “schools, libraries, medical and healthcare providers, community colleges, and other institutions of higher education, and other community support organizations and entities to facilitate greater use of broadband service by or through these organizations.”
The ALA is telling its members they should make multiple applications to increase their chances at federal money. Libraries should apply as regional consortia as well as through state applications, Sheketoff said. He said libraries have been unable to schedule meetings with the NTIA and the RUS. The agencies have met with large telecom companies and associations, including Cisco Systems and the Telecommunications Industry Association. “If in fact they never met with anybody, that is fair and square,” Sheketoff said. “But they are meeting with others, just not with us.”