Role of librarians

[Jon Hill]

> He made the point that it would make little difference if the information
> was on the Internet and our country spent dollars to allow access to the
> Internet to our children in schools or homes.  He said that the information
> is already in libraries, and our school system teaches the students how to
> use libraries, and they still aren't used by students.

All the information in the world may be in libraries, but unless you 
happen to live next to all the libraries in the world, finding and 
accessing the bit of information in the library(ies) is rather slow and 
time consuming.  It can take weeks to get that article from that journal 
because your local University/Public Library doesn't happen to take it, 
it can take months to get that book only published in Southy Africa, if 
that book you wanted is borrowed or lost then you have to wait until a 
copy is available etc.  I thought the InterNet was targeted at helping 
with access and delivery of information rather than going to replace 
libraries.  Also, we all know children in particular tend to be more 
interested in electronic things than books, even when its information.