The Policy Implications of Internet Connectivity in Public Libraries

Jaeger, Paul T., John Carlo Bertot, Charles R. McClure, and Lesley A. Langa. “The Policy Implications of Internet Connectivity in Public Libraries.” Government Information Quarterly 23, (2006): 123-141.

In this article, the authors draw on data gathered in the Public Libraries and the Internet 2004 study and use that data as part of their analysis of government policies that affect Internet connectivity in public libraries.

The identify six key policy issues: (1) the nature of sufficient bandwidth, (2) the perpetuation of the digital divide regarding Internet access in libraries, (3) the role of public libraries as access points for e-government services, (4) funding of Internet access, (5) the impact of filtering, and (6) the effect of homeland security legislation.

The authors examine changes from earlier studies in the series and discuss those changes in terms of policies that help facilitate increased access to digital technology, particularly the Internet. They go on to explore how policies are changing and discuss the impact of some of those changes.

Homeland security, particularly The Patriot Act, presents the threat of invasion of privacy and affects the kinds of records that libraries keep. Concern for patron privacy has led many libraries to cease keeping many types of usage records, records that “have a number of extremely important uses in libraries, from collection development to justification of funding” (135).

Even though this article goes way beyond the scope my project, it includes a wealth of material related to the whole topic of public libraries and Internet access, all of which affects my perception of my topic and its importance.

Public Access Technologies in Public Libraries: Effects and Implications

Bertot, John Carlo. “Public Access Technologies in Public Libraries: Effects and Implications.” Information Technologies and Libraries 28, no. 2 (Jun 2009): 81-92.

For this article, the author draws on the data collected in the Public Libraries and the Internet Studies with which the author has been involved since 1994. The focus here is on the implications of public libraries providing public-access technology (PAT). He summarizes changes in Internet connectivity and number of workstations available for public use, then discusses how providing these services is straining public libraries in terms of maintenance and management, staff, finances, and building.

In addition to the data from the Public Libraries and the Internet Studies, the author collected data from site interviews conducted separately from the Public Library studies.

Although this article is interesting, it addresses issues outside the scope of my project and is more useful as a source of ideas for further research, such as whether or not public libraries can continue to provide free access to the Internet in the face of the public’s growing appetite for more and faster access.

The Digital Divide & Public Libraries: a First-Hand View

Agosto, Denise E. “The Digital Divide & Public Libraries: a First-Hand View.” Progressive Librarian, no.25 (Summer 2005): 23-27.

In this fascinating article, the author compares the resources and services of three branch libraries within the same library system. In particular, she looked at the computer and Internet capabilities and found vast inequities.

After comparing the resources, the author identified three factors that contributed to the inequities. The first was an uneven distribution of resources such as computer workstations within the same library system. The second was a difference the amount of support private residents provided to augment the libraries’ resources. The third was a difference in the amount of support from local commercial entities (25).

Because the author was comparing specific branches, the data were more detailed, as in workstations per patron, and made the findings of larger studies more real to me. This was a short, but very powerful article that highlighted the differences in access to the Internet between communities. It also included specific examples of how the lack of access had a negative impact on particular people, such as the man who was going for a job interview but couldn’t get his resume finished before his interview because he didn’t have a computer at home and the library could only allow him 30 minutes on their public access computer. The library had imposed the time limit because it had only two public access computers and, at the time the man was trying to finish his resume, there was a two-hour waiting list of other people wanting to use the computer.