Commissioner Clyburn Remarks
FCC Library Open House 2014
April 16, 2014
Good morning everyone, and welcome to the FCC Library Open House: Your Connection to 
Information. I would like to thank Sheryl Todd for inviting me to join everyone today, and the 
staff for their hard work and dedication to this agency.
As the daughter of a librarian, I find today’s theme most fitting when speaking about a resource 
center located inside of an agency that focuses on connecting people, personally and 
professionally. In order to render sound policy and make fact and data-based decisions, we need 
information in various forms from a variety of platforms and resources. This facility, our library, 
continues to play an integral role in assisting staff with research and providing us with the 
materials necessary to achieve our agency’s mission.
If this were the early ‘80s, our library experience this morning would be strictly print based. But 
by the mid-1990s, the FCC staff performed general research using non-networked towers. Then, 
in the early 2000s, the electronic catalog became a key research resource for determining 
whether there was content here useful to you. Very soon, however, you will access library 
research content via cloud computing, which promises to increase the ease with which we are
able to conduct research activities, both on-site and off. 
Through the new cloud feature, teleworking staff will access the e-library homepage on the 
Intranet enabling them to use vetted research content directly from the library’s databases.
Web-based content and features are routinely evolving, and our Library continuously reviews its 
database offerings to provide us with the capability to perform research from our desktops.
But their work does not stop there. If the library staff finds that the resources you need are not 
available onsite or online, they will not hesitate to contact regional libraries, including the 
Library of Congress, to obtain materials for you to conduct the level of research needed to 
complete your task. 
That Connection to Information stretches far beyond our professional needs, and is widely used 
by all types of libraries. Thus, it is fitting that there are representatives here today from area 
public libraries, showcasing just how technology can be used by all of our citizens.
Today’s learning centers—because libraries are learning centers—are more than repositories for 
books and are light years away from that single room filled with periodicals. Our libraries offer 
3D printing for those wishing to explore and expand their imaginations; they offer programs to 
those of all ages who wish to learn a new language or a new skill; they offer broadband access to 
the millions who cannot afford it at home, and they are places of refuge for people who simply 
wish to share their love of the written, and sometimes spoken, word.
And this library, our very own center, remains deeply committed to the FCC staff and is a trusted 
place where we can come and get the information we need to better serve this nation.
2Your connection to information is right here, right now. Database vendors are on-hand this 
morning offering you unique opportunities to explore and ask about their products, and those in 
the FCC Technology Experience Center are available and anxious to introduce you to the latest 
in communications technology.
The library staff, and the database and technology vendors, not only want to hear what you have 
to say about their content, they are on-site and are willing to listen to your suggestions about how 
they can improve your overall research experience and professional performance. Take full 
advantage of this opportunity. Make the best of one of our most valuable resources.
On behalf of my colleagues, I wish to thank you for joining us this morning, and please continue 
to enjoy and benefit from today’s Open House.