THIS ARTICLE MAINTAINS THAT THE CHALLENGE to the American public library is not information technology but the ideology of information technology. This ideology is a coalescence of technological determinism, free market values, and neo-conservative politics that advocates radical government deregulation and the withdrawal of support for public services. In the face of this challenge, the articl...

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can contribute to community development. Public access venues such as telecentres, public libraries and cybercafés make ICT more broadly available, extending the benefits of ICT to underserved sectors of the population. Development is seen as a process of empowerment of marginalized communities to transform their immediate reality and ...

Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 4 pp. 369–379 © 2010 American Library Association. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce for nonprofit, educational use. When asked about a hypothetical book containing racist beliefs, do people support removing the book from their public library or not? The study examined responses to this question from surveys conducted from 197...

This paper reports the results of an online survey concerning the management of Internet access in UK public libraries. All UK public library authorities were invited to complete the survey which had a response rate of 39%. The survey explored the ways in which acceptable use of the Internet in public libraries is managed through the use of mechanisms such as filtering software and authenticati...

Abstract—Several decades ago, food and drinks were disallowed in most Japanese libraries. However, as discussions of “Library as a Place” have increased in recent years, the number of public and university libraries that have relaxed their policies to allow food and drinks have been increasing. This study focused on the opinions of library users on allowing food and drinks in public libraries a...

This paper reports on a study of publishers’ attitudes towards e-books in the context of the global situation of e-book publishing. Comparative data are drawn from a replication of a survey carried out in Sweden, in Lithuania and in Croatia. The great contrast between the rise of the e-book in English speaking countries (and those with significant English speaking readers) is shown and contrast...

In the United States, e-government is a complex mix of federal, state, and local governments; technologies; service paradigms; and policies. There is no single approach to e-government, with a range of e-government applications and set of e-government technologies in effect. Agencies and levels of government have different mandates and approaches regarding e-government, leaving users on their o...

Abstract—Several decades ago, food and drinks were disallowed in most Japanese libraries. However, as discussions of “Library as a Place” have increased in recent years, the number of public and university libraries that have relaxed their policies to allow food and drinks have been increasing. This study focused on the opinions of library users on allowing food and drinks in public libraries a...

A considerable amount of information, particularly in image form, is shared on the web through social networking sites. If any of this content is worthy of preservation, who decides what is to be preserved and based on what criteria. This paper explores the potential for public libraries to assume this role of community digital repositories through the creation of digital collections. Thirty pu...

Trends from both within and without public librarianship create new opportunities for libraries to serve the public’s interest in heritage information. Based on a workshop series in Illinois, this article presents exploratory findings on existing public library heritage services and how cyberorganizing can enhance these services. Public libraries offer heterogeneous heritage services in local c...