theshiftingstacks

Living in western MA I've kept track of the FCC's rural broadband initiative. ARS Technica has a great posting on the recent report produced by the FCC and signed off by the interim Chair, Michael Copps. As Ars Technica reported, Copps' opines that market forces will only minimally pursue broadband infrastructure in rural areas. Many of the Libraries and Librarians I worked with in the Western MA region have waited for residential broadband access for years. Often the Library and other administrative buildings offer the only source of broadband for users. Users often drive to the Library simply to check their email.

I get the sense that rural residents and their local Libraries feel left behind. While building websites for several rural libraries (Heath and Windsor Libraries) my colleagues and I found the directors very interested in progressing their web based services, but inhibited by the lack of infrastructure among other things.

On the one hand, the concentration of broadband to a few key town departments draws users to these services, especially the Library. However, the expansive resources available to all Western MA residents (databases, MedlinePlus, etc) are limited to the number of terminals at the library. Wi-Fi does reduce some of the limitations. In the case of online resources the purpose is to meet the user where ever and whenever there is an information need. Rural Libraries and communities will continue to fall behind the access curve if Copps' vision does not come to pass.