Democracy, Digital Divide and Public Library

Abstract

This provocative discussion paper (anno 2001) questions the blessings of information technology and globalisation which have been promised now for over three decades, and underlines the fact that the problem of the haves and have-nots, which has forever plagued every economy and every society, will not be absent from the new information society. It is also a plea for the maintaining – world wide, but especially in developing countries - of traditional media like radio, telex and printed matter. Consequently, it is a plea to maintain the (public) library – also in these times.