Title Vii

Failing to Close the “Digital Divide”

In the article “Failing to Close the “Digital Divide,” by Susan Crawford we learn that Americans are using libraries more and more for internet access. The main point Crawford is trying to make in this article is that for a large number of people, the library is the main point of access for the internet. Crawford states that a Pew survey revealed that one-fourth of all Americans used a library’s internet last year. The author asserts that libraries are depended on more by minorities (blacks and latinos) than whites for internet usage. Crawford offers information why Americans are using the internet in libraries. She states that Americans use the internet for everything from finding jobs, doing schoolwork, or managing bank accounts. Because of this influx of users to libraries for internet usage, demand for use of library computers outweighs the number of computers available. Crawford sees this as a sign of trouble, and a fact that Americans are being deprived of access to the internet.

In the second article “More Relevant Than Ever” Luis Herrera expresses his opinion of what libraries represent to him. Herrera views libraries as a American institute that symbolizes democracy and the freedoms to read, to choose what to read, and the freedom to share the ideas that come from this reading. Herrera then begins to discuss the transformations libraries are going through. This becomes the main focus of the article. Herrera discusses the transition of publishing from printed books to e-books. We learn that this is an issue that libraries and publishers are dealing with in how to distribute and manage the distribution to would be borrowers.

Herrera then discusses how libraries are moving forward by providing digital and multimedia tools for patrons to use. We then learn that libraries are the main place of internet access for people who do not have access in other places, and because of this demand libraries are...