Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Grainger Engineering Library Symposium [PAGE 31]

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privileged to be able to use them without seeing the bill People who are relatively privileged can have computers and access to CompuServe and Prodigy for a fee, but what do you see as enabling people who are not as privileged to have access to that kind of information so that we do not create a society that has more "haves" than "have nois." ANSWER: (Mrs. Simon): Well, we certainly hope that every public library every school library, will have this free access to the Internet. It is true that not every home will have the computer accesseven many libraries don't even have a telephone, of course, and many school libraries are poorly equipped. But if President Clinton and Vice President Gore mean what they say by the year 2000 every clinic, every hospital, every school, and every library will be connected to the Internet. Then I think there will be access to some of the "have-nots," and we have to remember that this is a nation of "haves" and "have-nots," and this university is a "have" place. I think part of our job in the government is to make sure that the have-nots get that access, and that will be part of our mission.

QUESTION: But that's assuming that even universities are not paying. If universities have to pay, too, for this access to databases right now, there is a relativelyfreeflow of information, but if that information comes with a bigger and bigger price tag, even the haves are going to have trouble. So are there policies that are being developed that will ensure that this access is still going to be available? ANSWER: (Mrs. Simon): We are hoping to do that with the reauthorization of the Library Services and Construction Act, no matter what it's called—the name "Construction of Libraries" is probably a thing of the past, with Andrew Carnegie and so forth. What we are looking at now is the retrofitting of libraries to accommodate the new technology, and if the reauthorization goes through the Congress next year, hopefully with a decent budget attached

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