December 27, 2012 New York Times - For a growing number of Americans, a library is for Internet access. According to a Pew survey last month, more than a quarter of all adults used the Internet at a library during the past year. The numbers are higher for blacks and Latinos than they are for whites. Indeed, whites may not know or understand how important library Internet access is to minorities: 92 percent of blacks and 86 percent of Latinos said it was very important for libraries to offer free access to computers and the Internet, while only 72 percent of whites did.
Users of public library Internet connections tell surveyors that they're applying for jobs, doing homework, getting information about health care, finding out about government benefits and managing their finances. And because almost a third of Americans (again, more blacks and Latinos than whites) don't subscribe to our country's expensive Internet access at home, librarians say that they're scrambling to fill the gap left by our nation's yawning digital divide.
A recent study by the Information Policy & Access Center at the University of Maryland reports that the demand for libraries’ limited resources has outstripped the supply of both computers and bandwidth: 87 percent of urban libraries report having insufficient computers, and only 17 percent of rural libraries offer broadband speeds greater than 10 Mbps, compared with 57 percent of urban libraries.
In the 21st century, high-speed Internet access is almost as essential as electricity. That libraries serve as the provider for millions of Americans isn't something to celebrate. It's a sign that we're in trouble. We're depriving people of basic information access that is central to every policy we care about – including health, education and national security – even though every American should be able to communicate reliably and access information at any time.
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