This is true because of the incredible success the Broadband Program has had across the country here and at the Brooklyn Library amazing things. Making Great Strides and addressing the digital skill divide. Many of us are wondering where the additional funding is going to come from . I should take a moment on the Digital Literacy spectrum to talk about the room we are sitting. This is a digital commons. It provides us through an increasingly sophisticated set of tools, faster connectivity. It cost around 34 million and how can we build more because we know the need is there. I am hoping the panel will talk about this. It is my pleasure to introduce the director of Library Services. Susan has done so much in her tenure to elevate libraries in the consciousness and we owe her gratitude and will be sorry to see her go. Susan, please, thank you. [ applause ] i would ask our gentlemen, the two toms if you dont mind joining me on the stage. Good morning, everyone. Well it is so wonderful to be here. I am okay. I am all right. I have to talk quite a bit and i will be drinking in between. It is just water. So first of all, welcome, everyone. This event is being recorded and will be made available to the public. So everybody keep that in mind as we have our exciting dialo e dialogue. It is my pleasure to con vene the institute hearing on libraries and broadband. And we are having this event during library week. I want to thank the washington, d. C. Public library. We could not have a better arena for the event. Just take a look over there. This building just opened up. This is what it is all about. The issue we are discussing today is of great importance to the millions of americans who use broadband at the nations 1700 Public Libraries as well as those who use broadband as home to Access Library resources. Every day children, teens and adults use broadband at their local library to further their education, find workforce and health information, seek Digital Literacy training, and much more. I am proud to be joined by members of the National Museum and Library Service board and they are with me here. Charles benson, christy of ohio and carl of maryland and winston tab from maryland. We are lucky to have another board member in the audience who comes from the museum house. And where see museum faces out there. We are honored to have the ark ist of the United States and we are excited to have the past president of the Library Association here today. Thank you for being with us. This is the first time we are used our authority to advi vise congress on library issues. This was from the Library Services act that incorporated into the imls law. Responsibilities that were held by the National Commission on library and information science. We chose this moment because it is full of potential. We are encouraged that tom wheeler, the federal communication chairman, is working to modernize the erate. And considering the analysis of fcc data that imls just released yesterday, this moment is perhaps of even greater importance than any of us realized. Our Analysis Shows 15, 551 libraries used the discount provided by the erate. This number varies from year to year about we found the annual participate rate was 67 of the libraries in the United States. Erate was created 17 years ago when the first overhaul of the communication act was passed in 96. This was the same year the museum act was enacted and created imls. We moved on to the technology act. And through that imls supports initiati initiatives help School Libraries serve the public. We help diverse people. To individuals with disabilities, limited functional literacy or informational skills and from its creation, imls recognized the importance of a connected society and a leadership role as a hub for the world. We are delivering broadbrand services and the needs of library pofessionals are meeting. I would like to know the National Broadband plan recommended affordable action to one giga pit per second to anchor institutions including library. A very good goal. The fcc, the president s own connect Ed Initiative and the broadband opportunities demonstrate a commitment and sense of urgency around highspeed internet. Public access to technology and content is dependent on my speed internet. We know there are people that havent adopted it at home and 19 million dont have access at all. This has a dramatic impact on the catapacapacity of public lis to leave those left out of the benefits. And the economic recession is bearing this out as the millions of americans went to libraries, our libraries continued their established role as community anchors. We know americas job seekers headed to their trusted institutions, often relying on the internets connection to sharpen their skills or look for jobs. To realistically survive in society you need the internet. There is no doubt they deliver information the communities need. Imls has a unique advantage point. We are here to better under how to best serve the public interest. We are not here to support one path forward but instead provide an opportunity for a public hearing to examine a variety of point of view. We will examine the broad Public Benefits of library broadband, analy analyze data and hear about solutions that will bring highspeed access to libraries. We will now begin with a wonderful welcome by fcc chairman tom wheeler. It gives me pleasure to introduce Thomas Wheeler who has taken time to start it off. Chairman wheeler has been involved with nes networks and experiences. He is an advocate and business man. He helped start multiple Companies Offering innovative cable, wireless and video communication. Chairman wheeler has made it clear he understands the importance of libraries. With this background on telecommunication. We are lucky too him here with us. Please welcome, tom wheeler. [ applause ] thank you very much, susan and to the members of the board, nice to see you here. This is something very important. And congrats to the institute of library and Museum Services for convening and having this idea to help get this message out. Susan and everybody there, i am privileged to share the podium with tom power from the whitehouse who has been a leading pusher, advocate, for the kinds of changes that we have to be making to mare sure we are bringing the Erate Program into the 21st century. I am joined by a couple colleagues who are volved in this. Jonathan chambers and Daniel Alverez and when you look at finger prints on what the fcc is doing in terms of erate reform you will find john and dans finger prints all over it. But there are two other important people in this audience and i think their presence here today creates a construct for how we can discuss things. Chairman reed hunt, i have the august responsibility of following in reeds foot steps as chairman of the fcc. And while there are many names that get attached to the Erate Program, the present at the creation seminole name associated with that is reed hunt. There would be no Erate Program without read hunt and that is a factual statement. And the person with more goodies in his house on pennsylvania avena avenue than any place other else. I have been probe privileged to hang around david. He is a library folks and what he has done at the National Archive is to open up the National Archives and so much of that concept of opening up means digitalization. The movie was fabulous but they got the telegraph scene wrong in the lincoln movie. He wrote them out and thank god he did and they are saved at the National Archives. When you hold in your white gloved hand the piece of paper that lincoln wrote on there is one degree of separation that you feel from lincoln. And that is a privilege a few researchers like i was privileged to have get. But what david has done is to digitize all of those documents. Not only the telegrams thought the other Great Holdings of the National Archives so there is one click between someone who wants to explore and lincoln. It used to be when i started by Research Online on lincolns telegraph susan is saying we know that. Get this canister and he would sit down and you would go through each microfilm picture one by one and now thanks to david you can click and it is there. So because of people like david digitized the product, the information, and because people like reed hunt made that digitized information available, that is why the work that we are talking about here today in terms of the importance of libraries is so incredible and key to what gets done. As we are seeing in this room, we are moving from stacks of books to online centers. The library has always been the onramp to the world of information and ideas. And now that onramp is a giga bet. Libraries are playing more and more important roles in the community. As was pointed out earlier, it is where americans without computers go to get online. It is where students after school go to get online. And one of the things the everyone always thinks Andrew Carnegie, steel. Andrew carnegie was first a network guy. He started as a telegraph operator for the pennsylvania railroad. As a matter of fact, he was brought here during the civil war and was responsible for stringing the telegraph line that went out toward manassas. He did not make it before the battle. What we know and what Abraham Lincoln knew about what went on was as a result of Andrew Carnegies work. It is appropriate that we are talking about libraries caught, about his contribution in making libraries what they were in the 19th century, and we come back to networks. That is why modernization is so important. The program that we have is called the schools and libraries program. We need to also start calling it the libraries and Schools Program to make sure that we recognize and emphasize the important contribution of each of those institutions. What are we doing . We are moving from supporting 20thcentury technology to 21st century highspeed Broadband Technology. It is a reallocation of resources, reallocations of resources are never easy and never pleasant, but they are essential if we are to keep pushing forward. We are moving to broadband. It is not just the external connection but how you get using wifi to the individual. Where bringing the application into the administrative process as well by using the same kind of broadband tools. Were focusing on fiscal responsibility. The key is not just more money, although it is if more money is warranted we will deal with it, but the key is money well spent by encouraging longer support time frames so that you can have longer contracts with lower rates and by establishing a system of reference pricing so that people know what is a fair price is we dont expect librarians to the Telecom Experts and to be able to go up there and handle with telecom companies. How do we help in that regard. Them limited what brought. Releasing our plan for 2015. Theres an incredible distinguished list of participants the of wind up today. Andrew over a century. We stand on the president s of being able to have the same kind of seminal him back on the flow of affirmation and ideas in the 21st. As for the work that you are doing is so important. The reform and modernization for the program is essential and that is why todays hearing, the kinds of things that he will explore are so helpful to those of those who are trying to work on just how we seize on this incredible moment of historic significance. Thank you for all of your doing. [applause] thank you so much. I was inspiring. Just to get the record straight. Were excited to have chris coming this be sent from the gate foundation, and i have to say when i talk about Andrew Carnegie when i speak, we also characterized bill and Melinda Gates as our 21st century. At the white house as deputy chief Technology Officer for telecommunications. Managerial and policy support for a wide range of Agency Activities including internet policymaking, spectrum and representative recovery act Grant Program and was one of the first individuals to encourage us to have this hearing and make it happen. Welcome. [applause] thank you. Good morning. Thank you for having this hearing. It is a thrill to show share the day as with chairman willard one of my favorite policy persons. He is doing such a great job. Second favorite. I do work in the white house. You never know who is watching. So we are really trying to help your. The chairman has identified some of the ways forward, but we really recognize that the real work happens a local level. My main message of this morning is to thank you for the work the you do. For some of us this is personal. My mother was an Elementary School teacher and librarian. When she retired the local newspaper came and did an article about her. One thing that has changed his parents seem to have lost some focus on the idea that kids need to come to school prepared to learn. School is not just the island where education can happen and when they leave education stops. All community has to be focused. That is why the work of the libraries is so important. I dont have to tell you that. We learned this the, finding that the strongest applications or the ones that have the support of the community. The ones where we saw the Community Coming together to support the applications were the ones that have the best chance of succeeding. We are proud of the work done. If you get a chance shake her hand. She and the team did such a great job. With the libraries in particular connecting over 1300 libraries greatly increasing bandwidth said meet the increasing demands of their patrons. Over 2,000 Library Locations across the country. I am pleased to announce that today in cia will be releasing three case studies published by an independent contractor on the positive improvements and effects that the program is having. As you will see, you can go on the website to pull this down. In delaware 420 previously Unemployed People receive job offers fast after using the new job centers at four Public Libraries. In michigan new Public Computer Center facilities are estimated to have save users more than 160,000 hours per year. In texas Public Computer Centers including over 120 Library Locations have provided nearly 850,000 training hours to support this to my enabling people to search for jobs and housing, connect with families and other countries and other important uses that were referred to. We will be putting that out today. We know there is more to be done and the needs of the librarys are read aces to statistics that 50 percent of libraries report they are the only source of Free Internet in their communities. People out in the car trying to connect. At you can look at that has kind of discouraging. You know, id try to be encouraged because we are stimulating demand. We have children and adults which is a good sign. As you will hear today, millions of americans are using the internet to study for degrees or certificates cannot apply for jobs, develop a professional skills and participate in civic affairs. Libraries are truly centers of Lifelong Learning and are available to all regardless of age, income, or disability. For folks who do not have computers at home they are essential, but even for folks who do have computers of home, if you are trying to study or do certain tasks the whole environment may not always be the best place to do it. The librarians are good at keeping things on the cutie and quiet. Thank you for maintaining the stability. [laughter] i started by telling you about my mother, so i will finish by telling you about her mother, my grandmother. She was a teacher and head mistress and then she retired and got bored. Went back to teaching, retired again, became a tutor and give her last lesson on her 90th birthday. Decided that that was enough. She never took a dime for triggering. She just wanted to teach. A few weeks ago i was visiting with a cousin of mine. One thing and remember was people would come to your grandmothers house. She had books all over the place a child was with the visitors. The child would always leave with the present, and the present was always a book. My grandmother would presented in a way, some kids christmastime, birthdays, they get a book, they are not so thrilled. My grandmother had a way of doing it so that the child ought to have gone to disneyland. She had this enthusiasm. She had a lot of bucks. She gave them away. She loved sharing them with kids because she knew what my mom observed. We need to all be in it together. Education is at the home, at the library. So the chairman and i all started this. We will keep doing what we can, but we are depending upon you. We know how hard youre working to make things happen at the local level. We will support you because we know