printing at stations

[Karen G. Schneider]

>Thus, what I am suggesting is that whenever you see yourself helping people
>to get their information to paper, the alarm bells should go off in your head
>and you should immediately think "what is wrong here?  why are we doing
>this?"

Here's why we're "doing this:: many people are too poor to purchase the
equipment necessary to support your schemata, and the bottom line is public
service.  If you want this scenario to change, go to the polls and elect
people who believe in helping people.

>One may of course have to quickly retreat and accept the reality that we
>aren't quite there yet in our philosophical and technological journey but
>just to think in this mode is instructive.

More significantly, "we" aren't there in our political or economic
journeys, either.  One reason libraries exist is to provide access to
everyone, period. Most of us would be thrilled if all of our patrons were
comfortable enough in their circumstances to download their data and take
it home.  But then, not all of our patrons *have* homes.


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Karen G. Schneider * kgs at bluehighways.com * http://www.bluehighways.com/
Cybrarian * Columnist, American Libraries, Internet Law Researcher
Author, The Internet Access Cookbook (e-mail Neal-Schuman at icm.com)