[WEB4LIB] Re:Digital Divide (was Re: RE: Questia: who is behind

[Tom Edelblute]

All right you accademinc, its time for someone from the public library
sector to put their two cents in.

Here in Anaheim, 82% of the children that go to school within the
Anaheim School District live below the poverty line.  They come to the
public library to complete their school assignments because they do not
have a computer at home.

So don't tell me that the digital divide is a First World vs. Third
World issue, we have it right here in Southern California.
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Edelblute
Reference and Technology Librarian
Anaheim Public Library   phone: (714) 765-1759
500 West Broadway        fax:   (714) 765-1730
Anaheim CA 92805         e-mail: thomas at anaheim.lib.ca.us


Tony Barry wrote:
> 
> At 5:56 PM -0800 1/2/2001, Robert Tiess wrote:
> >Dan Lester wrote:
> >
> >>  DB> Also, do
> >>  DB> not add to the Digital Divide.
> >>
> >>  Yawn.  The digital divide is an invention of a bunch of liberal
> >>  whiners who don't have enough trees to hug.
> >
> >Dan, now I realize you might have been on a sort of roll
> >here debunking post after post, but surely you don't think
> >every single family or child out there has the money or
> >sufficient local informational infrastructures in place
> >(e.g. wired libraries and schools) to put them all online
> >and in reach of the same research resources you have
> >access to in your institution.
> 
> The digital divide is between the first world and the third world. In
> rich countries like the US and Australia (my country) the poor have a
> chance to get access via public libraries and other institutions. But
> the bulk of the world's population hasn't even got a phone let alone
> internet access.
> 
> Let's remember folks we are talking about the world, not just the
> relatively poor in the rich countries. From where the bulk of the
> world's population sits the poor in the first world are pretty
> comfortable. For instance they don't face the risk of starvation or
> an AIDS epidemic which in Africa and Asia will have an effect as
> ghastly as the Black Death.
> 
> Tony
> --
> phone  +61 2 6241 7659
> mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
> http://purl.oclc.org/NET/Tony.Barry