Chris Peters's blog

In March of this year, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) began the ongoing, rolling announcement of the first round of grantees under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

Net neutrality and related broadband policies are complex, contentious subjects because all parties realize that the decisions made now could determine the distribution of power on the Internet for decades while also shaping its progress and development. Both sides in this debate have rich, powerful allies. On the pro side is the High Tech Broadband Coalition, whose members include employees from Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, and the Save the Internet Coalition. On the anti- side, phone companies and cable companies want the right to offer tiered services and charge higher rates for better-quality Internet access.

Is someone at your library following the work of the Knight Commission on Information Needs in a Democracy? Their research and reports provide lots of evidence supporting those of us who argue that our representatives need to support libraries,  good journalism, and a wider ecosystem of adult learning opportunities. If you're trying to build local support for your library, consider forwarding the Informing Communities report or a summary with its ten recommendations to key political players in your area.

I don't envy all the small technical support departments out there trying to maintain 150 (or more) computers and support 60 (or more) colleagues with three to five full-time staff (or less). I imagine that on bad days managing this kind of tech support operation resembles nothing so much as managing a kindergarten class. Do your peers know how to form a line and stay there patiently until their turn comes along?

It seems sometimes like the best web sites for technology trainers change location every hour. I have trouble locating sites that are persistent and reliable with regular updates and new content. This is a shame, because technology trainers in schools, libraries and community technology centers don’t have time to recreate the wheel every time they teach Introduction to Microsoft Word, when hundreds of colleagues around the world have already written that lesson plan.

Another day, another insightful, interesting library blogger. Andy Woodworth published a challenging blog post last week entitled, Why Closing More Public Libraries Might Be the Best Thing (...Right Now).

For years, David Lee King has used his blog, conference presentations and other platforms to preach the value of social media in libraries. Last week, the interwebs were all abuzz and aTwitter with links to fresh evidence that David practices what he preaches. At his day job, David is Digital Branch & Services Manager for the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Libary System (TSCPL).  Therefore, I have little doubt that he's responsible in some way for this beautiful digital artifact, the 2009 Annual Report for TSCPL.

Kami Griffiths, my co-worker and training facilitator par excellence organized a Meetup last Friday at the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind, which I was fortunate enough to attend. The presenters, Patty Quinonez and Shen Kuan were both power users of assistive technology themselves and experts at training others. Patty demonstrated ZoomText, a powerful screen-magnification application, and Shen demonstrated JAWS, a well-known screen reading program. The key take-aways for me were:

Yeeees!

Why?

Because to paraphrase Ice-T, “Farmin’ ain’t easy.”

About a year ago, I helped edit A Swedish Book Kiosk Travels to Rural California, a Library Spotlight article written by Loren McCrory, director of the Yuba County Library.