Note to my T182 students - You may find the Information Commons Blog on libraries as commons helpful in respect of the early discussion we had in Section 2 re. commons.

The June 13, 2003 entry in full follows

"Libraries and the Defense of the Commons

There's been a bit more blog discussion linking the defense of libraries and the defense of the commons. Larry Lessig picked up
on our post yesterday about funding cuts in Milwaukee-area school libraries. Larry suggests that librarians might sign the
Reclaim the Public Domain petition and ultimately lower the cost of libraries by expanding the public domain.

The sound you may have heard just now was the palm of my hand smacking against my forehead. Yes! Thank you, Larry. I
should have made the connection between the petition and supporting libraries myself, but now will not fail to take up the
banner Larry has so graciously unfurled. However, I think there are stronger reasons for librarians to support the petition than
just lowering the cost of information and therefore possibly making library budgets go further (laudable though that practical
goal may be).

Libraries are some of the best examples we have of the information commons in action. Libraries are community resources that
provide all kinds of information services to the public. Librarians are professionals whose role is to make the information
commons accessible to users. Librarians are among the staunchest supporters of access to information and of the framework of
rights necessary to guarantee that access. And librarians should support the public domain in general (and this petition in
particular) because the access to information embodied in copyright's public domain is interwoven with access to information in
society as a whole. An action in support of a vibrant public domain is an action that supports access to information overall.

And the discussion goes on. Over at Copyfight, Donna Wentworth linked Larry's post back to the Shifted Librarian. And that's
where Jenny Levine at TSL added: "The public domain and commons is just one more excellent service that libraries enrich,
and yet one more service we as a society will lose, if we don't start valuing our libraries and librarians more." Support the
commons, support libraries. Support libraries, support the commons.

Jessamyn from librarian.net added to the discussion with a comment on yesterday's commons-blog posting citing TSL. I'm
copying it here in its entirety to make it a bit more prominent:

"strikes me also that we need to be less vague than "support library services" in our requests. I think we need to:

"1. stress why libraries are important;

"2. explain specifically what we would like politicians to do [not just wear an "I [heart] my library" button in public];

"3. make having a library card wrapped up with being a good citizen.

"These things have been working well, so far, in Vermont where we have bi-partisan support FOR libraries and AGAINST the
USA PATRIOT Act. Go see Bernie Sanders at ALA and tell him you like what he is doing.

"...and, of course, going to our public library ourselves, and encouraging others to do the same. Even if you like to buy books at
Amazon, there are still things your library has to offer you. And every little book checked out helps your library look more
vital."

There are a couple of things I really appreciate about Jessamyn's comment. For one thing, I believe it implicitly suggests that
supporting libraries (like supporting the commons) is inherently a political act (at least in terms of requiring that we take a clear
position on how resources are organized in our society). Furthermore, she points out that we need to be very concrete about
what we think libraries offer, about what we want to acheive, and about what we ask our elected officials to do for us. If we
can't get concrete, it will be much more difficult to get anywhere.

Another point this conversation is raising for me is that we have greater potential for success if we can work together. There are
lots of ways that people are working to promote access to ideas and it can only help us to see the connections among the
various initiatives and to approach them with a spirit of mutual cooperation. Support for the public domain ultimately *is*
support for libraries, and the reverse is true as well. Furthermore, all of us who advocate openness in information can take heart
in the successes of our compatriots. The groundswell of opposition to the FCC's further deregulation of media ownership rules
is good news for all of us concerned with promoting access to ideas. The 12-thousand plus signatures on the Petition to
Reclaim the Public Domain are a sign of support not just for the Eldred Act, but for access to information overall.

So what to do? How about building a coalition that brings together the many voices working now to promote the commons and
access to information in its many forms? Is this desirable? Is it possible? And to what extent is it already happening? More on
this from me in the future, but if anyone has thoughts on this, I hope you'll share. . ."

There are some responses to these thoughts also available.