These are just a few passages we thought were noteworthy. So, make sure to read the entire post.
After conducting its initial analysis of the Federal Communications Commission’s(FCC) National Broadband Plan, the American Library Association (ALA) supports several initiatives suggested in the plan, such as the National Digital Literacy Program and the modernization of the E-rate Program.
“Other proposals, including the Connect America Fund, Civic Engagement, and Training Teachers in Digital Literacy, are good concepts but call for additional measures to ensure the needs of all Americans – including vulnerable populations – are met,” said Dr. Alan S. Inouye, director of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP).
National Digital Literacy Program
ALA enthusiastically supports the launch of this Program. Providing individuals with the guidance and training necessary to search, locate, obtain, and use all forms of information resources is central to the mission of libraries.
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Modernizing the E-rate Program
The plan recognizes the important role that the E-rate program has played – and will continue to play – in supporting telecommunications and other services for schools and libraries and proposes to improve the program in multiple ways.
Connect America Fund and Universal Service Reform
True information access for all Americans means that all households need to have broadband access. We are supportive of the concept of the Connect America Fund and expect to participate in the discussions to develop it. As broadband infrastructure is fully deployed to households in all communities across America, we suggest that libraries’ bandwidth should be upgraded to higher speed connections...
Training Teachers in Digital Literacy
As discussed in the plan, teachers must be digitally literate if we expect to achieve digital literacy for students. A number of schools are already staffed with trained information professionals who are proficient with digital technologies – school librarians.
Civic Engagement
ALA applauds the plan’s focus on a more open and transparent government. The use of the Internet to provide government information and services certainly enhances access to the government – for those who have ready Internet access from their homes or workplaces.
Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP)
It is a tremendous opportunity to learn from the broadband investments made in the BTOP and Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP). In particular, we encourage that an assessment includes a review of outcomes across institutional contexts. In our case, we want to identify the lessons learned from library-based grants to inform future broadband investments in libraries.
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
