Saturday, September 15, 2007

Public access to the internet in public libraries -article

This is an example of the kind of article you will get from First Monday. Scholarly but not too technical.

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/bertot/index.html

6 comments:

ToughCookies said...

Hi Richard,
The article is very useful. Thanks. I'm wondering how recent should the literature (i.e. articles, books) be? Can I use literature published in the late 1990s?

Thanks,
Amy

p.s. can I post questions here?

marta said...

Hi Richard

I could not access the article nor any of the googled first monday web pages.

Marta

Richard said...

What message did you get?
I clicked on the link in Firefox and the article came up.
Today, I entered
http://firstmonday.org/
and the site came up.
Are you behind a very restrictive firewall?

Richard

marta said...

Hi Richard

Today I got connected right away from the link you gave us. Before the page was just unavailable.

Marta

Unknown said...

I really appreciated this article.
I am a huge believer in the Public Library System so I loved reading about this thought provoking subject.
Joni

Nada said...

Hello everyone,

This article presented a couple of new roles for public libraries establishing them as essential information hubs in any community. I see two of several impacts as a result of these changing roles:

1) library hours and security will need to increase significantly
2) additional library staff will need to be available to provide one-on-one assistance to the majority of adult users who have limited computer/internet literacy.

For those who are reading this post and want a reminder of the 3 roles discussed in the article, here they are:
"* First refuge, in which public access computing and Internet access is a lifeline in times of community–wide crisis.
* Ready access point, in which public access computing and Internet access is vital to personal government–related tasks that need to be accomplished online (i.e., enrolling in a Medicare prescription program, filling out student loan forms, submitting immigration information, etc.) for people who (a) have no other means of accessing online content, or (b) need assistance in understanding the application/information exchange process.
* First choice, in which the library is a trusted community–based entity to which individuals turn for help in their online activities — even if they have computers and Internet access at home or elsewhere."

Nada