Museum-Library Partnership Reports Progress

Western Trails is a four-state, museum-library collaborative funded through a National Leadership Grant awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in October 2001. The grant funds this partnership to digitize and provide World Wide Web access to photographs, text, and maps about historic and modern trails in Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Kansas. Records for the images will be stored in databases that can be searched from a common search engine. The Nebraska participants (Buffalo County Historical Society, Nebraska Library Commission, Nebraska State Historical Society, Omaha Public Library, Oregon Trail Museum Association, Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln [UN-L] Libraries)

have been very busy getting this project underway. They attended training, submitted project proposals, and set up subgroups to discuss the Nebraska database, metadata standards, scanning standards, and marketing/Web site design for the project.

Fifty participants attended the first training event, an Introduction to Digitization workshop in February in Lincoln. Workshops on Scanning and Metadata were held in Grand Island in March. A variety of grant-related meetings were held to discuss the project proposals, metadata standards, marketing, and web site design. Programming work on the Nebraska database, to be hosted at UN-L Love Library, has begun.

In April and May the participants chose items from their collections to be digitized; researched

ownership, copyright, and scanning alternatives; and submitted project proposals to Denver University, the lead recipient of the four-state grant. The Nebraska State Historical Society photographed items at the Chimney Rock National Historic site and scanned them at the Gerald Ford Conservation Center. Other participants will begin scanning this summer. Some plan to use a scanning center at the Library Commission. Scanning representatives will meet in Denver in July.

To learn more about the project, plan to attend a panel discussion at the NLA/NEMA Convention in Lincoln, October 23-25.

Liz Bishoff, left, Colorado Digitization Project, and Beth Goble, Nebraska Library Commission, at Introduction to Digitization Workshop

Court Overturns Certain CIPA Requirements

A three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled on May 31, 2002, that Sections 1712(a)(2) and 1721(b) of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) (applying to libraries) are facially invalid under the First Amendment and permanently enjoined the government from enforcing those provisions. The judges said that the law went too far, "Any public library that adheres to CIPA's conditions will necessarily restrict patrons' access to a substantial amount of protected speech in violation of the First Amendment." The court found unconstitutional section 254(h)(6), which set out a requirement that a library receiving E-rate discounts have a technology protection measure for its computers with Internet access. Thus, public libraries receiving E-rate discounts are not required to filter their computers with Internet access.

The Neighborhood Children's Internet Protection Act, which amended 47 U.S.C. Section 254 by adding subsection (l), is not affected by the Court's decision and remains intact. Thus, a library receiving E-rate discounts is still required to have an Internet safety policy that addresses:

	Access by minors to inappropriate matter on the Internet and World Wide Web,
	The safety and security of minors when using electronic mail, chat rooms, and other forms of direct electronic communications,
	Unauthorized access, including hacking, and other unlawful activities by minors online,
	Unauthorized disclosure, use, and dissemination of personal identification information regarding minors, and
	Measures designed to restrict minors' access to materials harmful to minors.

Section 254(l) also includes a public notice and hearing/meeting requirement, which remains in force.

It is important to note that the decision did not address CIPA requirements as they apply to schools. Those requirements remain in full force and effect. Schools will continue to be required to meet CIPA requirements as spelled out in FCC regulations in order to receive funds from the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism.

Schools and Libraries Division is monitoring the effect of the court's decision on E-rate discounts. Information will be posted at www.sl.universalservice.org. For the response of the American Library Association, see www.ala.org. For additional information see www.paed.uscourts.gov.

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