The unique nature of young adults, no longer children yet not adults, is the central contradiction which emerges in the debate over equal access to information.When is a person considered an adult? The debate rages, in particular in the juvenile justice system. It depends on what state that person lives in, the political climate of the legislature, and what the young person
wants to do or is to be punished for doing. Sixteen-year-olds can drive in most states. They are given the legal authority to operate a dangerous piece of machinery, yet that same person, in many libraries, might be still consid- ered a child and be denied access to the Internet, video tapes, and other resources or services. The interest of the state in “protecting” people not yet considered adults bounces hard up against the well-established, although often challenged, position of the American Library Association of providing equal access regardless of age. In 2001, the American Library Association mounted a campaign to repeal the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which primarily mandates that libraries receive e-rate discounts if they pro- vide filtered Internet access to minors. Few things are as blatantly anti-equal access as the CIPA.
The debate, which has intensified to national proportions complete with court cases and media coverage, is nothing new. The dilemma associ- ated with the urge to protect young people from certain types of materials has long been present in libraries. Many an adult can tell the story of being denied access as a child to the adult part of the library, or not being allowed to check out certain books. While the format has changed, the debate rages on. It is about teens having the same access to information as adults. Is some of the material that teens would access harmful? Of course, it is. But is it more harmful to deny access to information they want and need? Again, of course it is.
The importance of youth advocacy is especially evident when the library, through its policies and procedures, provides equal access to resources. Access begins in selection; libraries must purchase and promote materials that teenagers require to satisfy their varied needs. In particular, information about sexuality is not only of interest to teenagers for obvious reasons related to physical development, but also is necessary, even life-sav- ing, information. Barriers to information on sexuality are numerous. An example of this was a very public challenge by radio talk show host “Dr.
Laura” to YALSA’s TeenHoopla (http://www.ala.org/teenhoopla) website that selected Ask Alice, a health information service from Columbia University, as a link from the website. The controversy here, although about a website rather than a book, was based on the same clash of principles: the desire by some to withhold information from teenagers about sexuality and the com- peting urge by youth advocates to provide teenagers with vital health infor- mation. Rather than protecting young adults from information, which is something few teens would want or need, librarians must offer the resources and guidance to help adolescents make the transition to
adulthood from resources selected especially for them in a variety of formats, including providing links to selected Internet sites and pro- viding equal access to the Internet.
Acquisition of many library resources raises the question of whether approval or rejection of a given item is the result of selective judgment and discrimination or simply preselection censorship. This comes into play most often with materials which tend to challenge or question conventional ways of thinking and traditional values. But this questioning is a normal, natural, and necessary part of a young adult’s right of passage. Resources must be selected for positive qualities, rather than excluded because they push the envelope. This has long been an issue in popular music collections, and it did not start with the rap music. The questions about collecting raw and raunchy rhymes of many current rap artists are the same as those posed to librarians about collecting popular music since the time of Elvis. Much the same, the current trend toward “gritty” young adult literature, which has received coverage in national news sources such as Time and the Washington Post, poses a similar question about what is appropriate reading material for young adults. Youth advocates and proponents of equal access realize that adults must allow teens to make their own choices from the wide variety of information and entertainment available to them. Equal access gives teens the opportunity to do this.
Equal access is not only about legal or policy barriers to youth access to information, but also about economic obstacles. If the key to improving adolescent literacy is ample access to reading materials, then the key to improving information literacy is ample access to sources of information, in particular those available via the Internet. A gap exists between those who can effectively access and use new information and communication tools, such as the Internet, and those who cannot. It is clear that there is a need to extend the use of electronic resources to the underserved in our society.
While a consensus does not exist on the extent of the gap (and whether the gap is growing or narrowing), researchers are nearly unanimous in acknowl- edging that everyone in our society does not enjoy equal access to electronic resources at this point in time.
The main United States federal agency working on the issue of extend- ing technology to the underserved has been the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. This agency has collected most of the research, issued press releases, and pre- pared the seminal report Falling through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion (2000).The guiding principle of this work is that
In just about every country, a certain percentage of people has the best information technology that society has to offer. These people have the most powerful computers, the best telephone service and fastest Internet service, as well as a wealth of content and training relevant to their lives.
There is another group of people. They are the people who for one reason or another don’t have access to the newest or best computers, the most reli- able telephone service or the fastest or most convenient Internet services.
The difference between these two groups of people is what we call the
“digital bridge.” To be on the less fortunate side of the bridge means that there is less opportunity to take part in our new information-based econ- omy, in which many more jobs will be related to computers. It also means that there is less opportunity to take part in the education, training, shop- ping, entertainment and communications opportunities that are available on line. Now that a large number of Americans regularly use the Internet to conduct daily activities, people who lack access to those tools are at a growing disadvantage. Therefore, raising the level of digital inclusion by increasing the number of Americans using the technology tools of the dig- ital age is a vitally important national goal. (34)
Falling through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion concludes that more than half of all households have computers and that more than half of all Americans will be using the Internet by the middle of 2001. Nevertheless, a gap remains or has expanded slightly in some cases, even while Internet access and computer ownership are rising rapidly for almost all groups. For example, data gathered for the report show that large gaps remain for blacks and Hispanics when measured against the national average Internet pene- tration rate (blacks 23.5% penetration rate; Hispanics 23.6%; compared with 41.5% of the total).
The Web-Based Education Commission’s report, The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice (2000), outlines a national agenda for addressing the issue of equal access to electronic resources. It is asking institutions from the federal government to the local school to engage in programs which narrow the gap between information haves and have-nots. The report calls for a national mobilization: “one that evokes a response similar in scope to other great American opportuni- ties––or crises: Sputnik and the race to the moon; bringing electricity and phone service to all corners of the nation; finding a cure for polio.” (11) The challenges of the equal access to electronic resources provide librarians working with youth with a myriad of opportunities for networking in the
community, expanding resources through private and public funds dedi- cated to this project, and energizing communities in pursuit of this goal.
The lack of equal access to electronic resources is not a “library” problem, but rather a real threat to communities where youth are disenfranchised from entry into the Information Age, as well as a barrier to positive youth development.