'The Great Equalizer': Why Some Arizona Libraries Offer Curbside Service Amid COVID-19; KJZZ.com, May 6, 2020

Christina Estes, KJZZ.org; 'The Great Equalizer': Why Some Arizona Libraries Offer Curbside Service Amid COVID-19

[Kip Currier: Next week I launch a new required course -- The Information Professional in the Community -- in the MLIS degree program at the University of Pittsburgh. One of the topics we will be investigating and debating over the course of the term is the upshots and downsides of information professionals serving as "first responders" and "second responders" in various situations, like the Covid-19 pandemic.
This article and audio story provides a tale of two Arizona library systems' divergent approaches on whether To-Curbside-Or-Not-To-Curbside...]

"Maricopa County Library District

About 40 miles southeast of downtown Phoenix, customers at Queen Creek Library get the curbside treatment.

Rob Scott, digital marketing officer for Maricopa County Library District, recorded audio last week at KJZZ’s request as a library employee directed a driver to a numbered space where the driver would pop open the vehicle’s trunk...

Phoenix Public Library

Sixteen libraries in the state’s most populous county offer curbside pickup but not libraries in the state’s most populous city. 

“It has been a topic of discussion for Phoenix Public Library,” said Lee Franklin, community relations manager.

She said Phoenix is erring on the side of caution by not offering curbside service. 

“We don’t see an ability for us to do that and still prioritize maintaining that safe environment for our staff, our customers and our visitors,” Franklin said."

Digital divide persists with online portals for cancer patients; Reuters, February 14, 2018

Lisa Rapaport, Reuters; Digital divide persists with online portals for cancer patients

"“Internet access is not uniform across populations,” said senior study author Dr. David Gerber, a researcher at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

“There exists a `digital divide,’ with certain groups having lower access to broadband Internet than others,” Gerber said by email.

The sheer volume of information in recent years may be overwhelming patients and discouraging them from using these portals, Gerber said."

The least connected people in America; Politico, February 7, 2018

Margaret Harding McGill, Politico; The least connected people in America

[Kip Currier: A must-read primer on the State of the Digital and Tech Divides in America AND a compelling call for long-promised, long-overdue action on Broadband Internet access for all Americans.]

"As broadband internet becomes more and more important in the U.S. — the way Americans do everything from apply for jobs to chatting with their relatives to watching TV — one gap has become more glaring: the difference between those who have broadband and those who don't. An estimated 24 million people, about 8 percent of Americans, still have no home access to high-speed internet service, defined by the Federal Communications Commission as a download speed of 25 megabits per second. (That's what the FCC says allows telecommuting or streaming high-definition video.) The overwhelming majority of those people live in rural areas, like farms or in big, poorly served areas like this one.

The shorthand for fixing this problem is “closing the digital divide," and FCC Chairman Ajit Pai says it's his top priority. But it has been a high-priority problem for years and remained persistently out of reach for reasons rooted in the structure of our telecommunications system itself. Internet access in the U.S. depends almost entirely on private companies; unlike other crucial services like postal delivery or electric power, it isn't considered the government's job, and isn't regulated as a public utility. But the limits of that system have become painfully apparent: Companies can't make money by running expensive wires to few customers, and a complex tangle of incentives offered by the government hasn't solved the problem in towns like Orofino.

Nowhere is the lack of broadband access more acute than in places like this: Rural Indian reservations have lower rates of coverage than anywhere else in the nation. About 35 percent of Americans living in tribal lands lack broadband access, according to the most recent report by the FCC. In Idaho, the FCC estimates that 83 percent of the tribal population lacks broadband, making the Nez Perce tribe among the least-connected groups in the country."

GRAPHIC: America's digital divide, in 2 maps; Politico, February 7, 2018

John Hendel and Tucker Doherty, Politico; GRAPHIC: America's digital divide, in 2 maps

[Kip Currier: Very timely data and information visualization, via these 2/7/18 Politico maps, for exploring thorny issues of Digital Divides and Access to Information in my Information Ethics class today.]

"The divide between America's haves and have nots is increasingly marked by technology. A broadband connection is a portal to jobs, to education, to consumer goods, to information and to other people. Yet huge swaths of the United States are still unconnected, particularly in rural areas. Some areas lack access to an internet connection at all. Others have service creaky to let a student take an online course, or an adult working from home to join a videoconference.

The two maps below illustrate both problems..."

Microsoft Courts Rural America, And Politicians, With High-Speed Internet; NPR, All Tech Considered, July 11, 2017

Aarti Shahani, NPR, All Tech Considered; Microsoft Courts Rural America, And Politicians, With High-Speed Internet

"Millions of people in rural America don't have the Internet connectivity that those in cities take for granted. Microsoft is pledging to get 2 million rural Americans online, in a five-year plan; and the company is going to push phone companies and regulators to help get the whole 23.4 million connected."

Facebook is talking to the White House about giving you ‘free’ Internet. Here’s why that may be controversial.; Washington Post, 10/6/16

Brian Fung, Washington Post; Facebook is talking to the White House about giving you ‘free’ Internet. Here’s why that may be controversial. :

"The social media giant is trying to determine how to roll out its program, known as Free Basics, in the United States without triggering the regulatory scrutiny that effectively killed a version of the app in India earlier this year. If Facebook succeeds with its U.S. agenda for Free Basics — which has not been previously reported — it would mark a major victory for the company as it seeks to connect millions more to the Web, and to its own platform.

The U.S. version of Free Basics would target low-income and rural Americans who cannot afford reliable, high-speed Internet at home or on smartphones. The app does not directly pay for users' mobile data. Rather, it allows users to stretch their data plans by offering, in partnership with wireless carriers, free Internet access to resources such as online news, health information and job leads."

Internet for All; Slate, September 2016

[Podcast] Slate; Internet for All:

"Chattanooga, Tennessee, has a lightning-fast, publicly run broadband network that has attracted a lot of tech talent to the city. But as the city builds an economy around technology, one thing is becoming apparent: There’s a gaping divide between those who are tech-savvy and those who aren’t. In some neighborhoods, as few as 1 in 5 households have an internet connection. Can Chattanooga bridge its digital divide?"

Homework revisited; Radio Times, WHYY, 8/31/16

[Podcast] Marty Moss-Coane, Radio Times, WHYY; Homework revisited:

"Guests: Harris Cooper, Brian Gill, Jessica Rosenworcel

It’s a continuous complaint: too much homework! It comes from kids, parents, and sometimes even teachers. But are children really spending too much time on assignments out of school? What are the benefits of having children continue their studies after class? This hour we look at what the research says about homework and the role parents should play helping their kids deal with it. Mary Cummings-Jordan talks with one of the leading researchers on homework, HARRIS COOPER, professor of psychology at Duke University. We’ll also learn about the history of the homework debate which has been raging for over a century from Mathematica Policy Research’s BRIAN GILL. And these days, most assignments are online but five million families with school-age kids don’t have access to high-speed Internet. We’ll talk to FCC Commissioner JESSICA ROSENWORCEL about the “homework gap” and how to close the digital divide."

How to Give Rural America Broadband? Look to the Early 1900s; New York Times, 8/7/16

Cecilia Kang, New York Times; How to Give Rural America Broadband? Look to the Early 1900s:

"“The technology is a little different but how we get broadband to homes is actually very similar to electric,” he said.

Since broadband service has started, signs of economic vitality have appeared in the region."

Study: The Digital Divide Between Latinos And Whites Is Shrinking; NPR, 7/22/16

Ericka Cruz Guevarra, NPR; Study: The Digital Divide Between Latinos And Whites Is Shrinking:

"After years of lagging behind other ethnic groups when it comes to accessing the Internet, the "digital divide" between Latinos and whites is now at its narrowest point since 2009.

A new study from the Pew Research Center found that the percentage of Latino adults who report using the Internet increased from 64 percent to 84 percent between 2009 and 2015, a faster growth rate than that of whites going online in the same period (80 percent to 89 percent).

As a result, the gap in Internet use between Latinos and whites shrank from 16 percentage points in 2009 to just 5 points in 2015."

Unemployed Detroit Residents Are Trapped by a Digital Divide; New York Times, 5/22/16

Cecilia Kang, New York Times; Unemployed Detroit Residents Are Trapped by a Digital Divide:

"“Once I leave, I worry that I’m missing an email, an opportunity,” Mr. Hill, 42, said while using a library computer for a free one-hour session online. He cannot afford broadband, he added; his money goes to rent, food and transportation.

As one of the country’s most troubled cities tries to get back on its feet, a lack of Internet connectivity is keeping large segments of its population from even getting a fighting chance.

Detroit has the worst rate of Internet access of any big American city, with four in 10 of its 689,000 residents lacking broadband, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

While difficulties in connecting to the Internet in rural areas are well known, Detroit is becoming a case study in how the digital divide in an urban setting can make or break a recovery.

The deficiency of Internet access in Detroit is particularly glaring given that broadband is now considered as basic as electricity and water. Last year, the F.C.C. defined high-speed Internet as a public utility and made connecting all American homes to the web a priority. Yet many Detroit residents cannot pay for the service or a computer to go online, or for mobile data plans, which enable 24-hour Internet access anywhere over smartphones."

In San Jose, Poor Find Doors to Library Closed; New York Times, 3/30/16

Carol Pogash, New York Times; In San Jose, Poor Find Doors to Library Closed:

"The concept of free public libraries gained support in the 1830s and was popularized by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie , who helped build 1,689 libraries around the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s on the notion that all people should have an opportunity to improve themselves. But public libraries like San Jose’s are struggling to find money to pay for books and services.

In San Jose, libraries began charging 50 cents a day for an overdue book, and what Jill Bourne, who become director of libraries in 2013, called “an exorbitant processing fee” of $20 for lost materials. Those high fines have come at a cost.

In impoverished neighborhoods, where few residents have broadband connections or computers, nearly a third of cardholders are barred from borrowing or using library computers. Half of the children and teenagers with library cards in the city owe fines. Around 187,000 accounts, or 39 percent of all cardholders, owe the library money, Ms. Bourne said.

Outsiders might think that “everyone in Silicon Valley is affluent and hyperconnected,” said Mayor Samuel T. Liccardo. He represents San Jose’s one million residents, 40 percent of whom are immigrants. “We still have a digital divide.”"

Bridging a Digital Divide That Leaves Schoolchildren Behind; New York Times, 2/22/16

Cecilia Kang, New York Times; Bridging a Digital Divide That Leaves Schoolchildren Behind:

"With many educators pushing for students to use resources on the Internet with class work, the federal government is now grappling with a stark disparity in access to technology, between students who have high-speed Internet at home and an estimated five million families who are without it and who are struggling to keep up.

The challenge is felt across the nation. Some students in Coachella, Calif., and Huntsville, Ala., depend on school buses that have free Wi-Fi to complete their homework. The buses are sometimes parked in residential neighborhoods overnight so that children can connect and continue studying. In cities like Detroit, Miami and New Orleans, where as many as one-third of homes do not have broadband, children crowd libraries and fast-food restaurants to use free hot spots.

The divide is driving action at the federal level. Members of the Federal Communications Commission are expected to vote next month on repurposing a roughly $2 billion-a-year phone subsidy program, known as Lifeline, to include subsidies for broadband services in low-income homes.

“This is what I call the homework gap, and it is the cruelest part of the digital divide,” said Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic member of the commission who has pushed to overhaul the Lifeline program."

How Limited Internet Access Can Subtract From Kids' Education; NPR, 2/6/16

Alina Selyukh, NPR; How Limited Internet Access Can Subtract From Kids' Education:

"Researchers from Rutgers University and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop collected dozens of stories like Uribe's for a new study focused specifically on lower-income families with school-age children.

They surveyed nearly 1,200 parents with kids between 6 and 13 years old, whose income is below the national median for families with children. They found that even among the poorest households, nine in 10 families do have some access to the Internet, but in many cases that means dial-up or a mobile data plan.

"Our data is one of the first, if not the first time that we can really comprehensively look at whether or not having mobile-only access — meaning that you don't have it through a computer or a desktop — whether or not it's equivalent. And what our findings show is that it is not," says co-author Vikki Katz.

The study puts in a new light the important progress that smartphones brought to many disconnected households...

And digital equity experts say, the most important thing will be changing the way we think about the issue: no longer the question of if there's access, but what's the quality."

In Kansas City, Superfast Internet And A Digital Divide; NPR, 3/9/15

Frank Morris, NPR; In Kansas City, Superfast Internet And A Digital Divide:

"Mike Scott, the president of AT&T Kansas, stands by as workers splice fiber-optic cable before sinking it into someone's back yard. Last month AT&T became the third provider broadly offering affordable, one gig Internet here. Time Warner and other providers have also boosted speeds.

"It's a fiber war so to speak," he says. "We are literally standing in the trenches of a fiber war. And I think the customer ultimately wins in all this competition."

But not everyone's a customer. In some Kansas City neighborhoods only one in five households has any type of Internet connection, let alone a fast one. Michael Liimatta runs a nonprofit called Connecting for Good that's trying to change that.

"Our center here, you might consider it to be the front lines closing the digital divide in Kansas City," he says.

Folks from this low-income neighborhood come in and use Google Fiber for free, but no one has it in the huge housing project across the street. Liimatta says he's sometimes disappointed that some of the expectations that the city had in terms of universal adoption, and loads and loads of free bandwidth, "never came to be.""

Digital divide deepens between rich and poor - internet a family's lifeline?; Age, 1/21/16

Miki Perkins, Age; Digital divide deepens between rich and poor - internet a family's lifeline? :

"Travel anywhere in Australia and pretty much everyone has their head buried in a mobile phone.

When they return home, about 90 per cent of households in Australia have internet access.

Broadband is now a basic utility, just like water or electricity, but there are fears the rapid uptake of digital technology is leaving disadvantaged people in its wake.

"This is about having a basic adequate standard of living. If you're not able to get online on a regular basis you now live a completely different and excluded life," says Cassandra Goldie, the head of the Australian Council of Social Services.

The changing digital environment may exacerbate the experience of poverty and the trend towards greater inequality says ACOSS, in a new policy push on the "digital divide", released on Friday.

With government services increasingly online (and not always successfully - Centrelink clients recently missed out on payments because the service's website malfunctioned), people on low incomes have to use the internet frequently."

Broadband City: How New York Is Bridging Its Digital Divide; Nation, 1/8/16

Maya Wiley, Nation; Broadband City: How New York Is Bridging Its Digital Divide:

" Few would debate that the information superhighway is both an on-ramp and HOV lane for the global economy. Whether a resident needs to get online to access homework or supplemental educational tools, to search for a job or start a business, broadband is a necessity. Most may not realize how many can’t afford it. Jillian Maldonado, a South Bronx single mom who was earning $300 a week as an Avon representative is an all-too-familiar victim of the digital divide. After a long day, she would come home, make her young son dinner, and then take him past the check-cashing store, a small grocery, and the occasional drug dealer to get to the library to get him online to do his homework.

A family that doesn’t know how it will make its monthly rent payment may not have $75 a month for in-home broadband, let alone a computer. More than a third of low-income New Yorkers still do not have broadband at home. It’s why this year, for the first time in the history of the city, we added a broadband category to the capital budget and pledged $70 million over the next 10 years towards free or low-cost wireless service for low-income communities. These investments are part of the mayor’s aggressive approach to expanding broadband access."

Time to Bring Cuba Online; New York Times, 11/30/15

Editorial Board, New York Times; Time to Bring Cuba Online:

"Millions of Cuban citizens could have affordable access to the Internet in a matter of months. The only thing keeping the island in the digital Dark Ages is a lack of political will. Cuban officials have long blamed the American embargo for their nation’s obsolete telecommunications systems. They no longer have that excuse.

Regulatory changes the Obama administration put in place this year provide Havana with a number of options to expand Internet coverage quickly and sharply. If the government took advantage of that, the island’s anemic economy could get a much-needed jolt, and young Cubans who are determined to emigrate, a powerful reason to reconsider."

The Digital Disparities Facing Lower-Income Teenagers; New York Times, 11/3/15

Natasha Singer, New York Times; The Digital Disparities Facing Lower-Income Teenagers:

"Teenagers in lower-income households have fewer desktop, laptop and tablet computers to use at home than their higher-income peers, according to a new study. And those disparities may influence more than how teenagers socialize, entertain themselves and apply for college or jobs.

At a time when school districts across the United States are introducing digital learning tools for the classroom and many teachers give online homework assignments, new research suggests that the digital divide among teenagers may be taking a disproportionate toll on their homework as well.

Only one-fourth of teenagers in households with less than $35,000 in annual income said they had their own laptops compared with 62 percent in households with annual incomes of $100,000 or more, according to the report, to be published on Tuesday by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit children’s advocacy and media ratings group based in San Francisco."

U.S. Program Will Connect Public Housing Residents to Web; New York Times, 7/15/15

Dionne Searcey and Peter Baker, New York Times; U.S. Program Will Connect Public Housing Residents to Web:

"The program is an extension of the president’s ConnectED initiative, which was announced in 2013. It aimed to link 99 percent of the students from kindergarten through 12th grade to high-speed Internet in classrooms and libraries over the next five years.

The housing secretary, Julián Castro, in his first public speech in the role last year, cited expanding broadband access as a priority, mentioning how people lean against the windows outside a library in the Bronx in search of free Wi-Fi for their phones.

Mr. Castro on Wednesday also announced rules that would require new public housing and major renovations to include infrastructure to support broadband connections. He noted that while computers are not being provided to residents now, the agency is exploring opportunities with partners to do so. “We’re not just making the Internet more accessible, but more meaningful,” he said."