Dear ACRL government relations committee members,
The passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bodes well for our community. It includes $2.75 in the Digital Equity Act, and libraries of all types are eligible for this funding. This is by far the largest amount ever made available for digital inclusion in one measure, so it is indeed historic and worth celebrating. Read more in in ALA's press release: ALA applauds congressional passage of digital equity funds available to libraries.
There are other components in this bill for which libraries are eligible or could be eligible and you can expect more guidance from ALA Public Policy and Advocacy (PPA) in the coming weeks. PPA colleagues are now gearing up for the implementation advocacy phase for the digital inclusion funding – what happens between the President's signature and the agency (National Telecommunications and Information Administration, NTIA) issuing a Notice of Funding Availability (i.e., solicitation of grant applications). A big thanks to our vice-chair Mark who provided me valuable information about his digital equity work at Navajo Technical University that I passed along to inform that PPA implementation advocacy.
Additionally, PPA is keeping their eye on other legislation like NSF infrastructure funding (containing $1B for academic research facility modernization) and the social spending bill, containing $500 million for college completion grants. For the latter, we'll be considering ways to support academic libraries in influencing their states to understand library programs and services as effective for students and to specify them as qualified for college completion funding. Read more in this week's Politico weekly education newsletter (and you can sign up there for weekly email).
Kara
Kara J. Malenfant, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) | ACRL Senior Strategist for Special Initiatives
Association of College & Research Libraries | 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1300 | Chicago, IL 60601-7616 | 312.280.2510 | 1.800.545.2433, ext. 2510 | kmalenfant@ala.org
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