[WEB4LIB] Re: E-mail in libraries

[Mike Mitchell]

>
>I am continually troubled by the heavy-handed approach some members of our
>profession take when it comes to recreational use of the Internet,
particularly >those in public libraries. So what if someone wants to use the
Internet to play >games or chat or send email? We provide popular reading
materials in the line >of cartoon collections, graphic novels, steamy
romance novels, and books of >trivia & games....why should we prohibit
similar use of the Internet?

And I suppose you provide a bank of free and unlimited telephones? We see
E-mail and chat as extensions of the same principle. And free phone service
would be cheaper to provide, too. A fifteen dollar phone costing $15 a month
seems lots cheaper than a $1000 PC hooked up to an expensive ISDN or T-1
line with lots of maintenance costs. 



Mike Mitchell
Tech Services Librarian/System Administrator
Dittlinger Memorial Library
New Braunfels, TX 
mdm at nbpl.lib.tx.us