Information and Communication Technologies, the public library and social exclusion

This paper seeks to locate public library efforts to address social exclusion within the wider debate about the transition to an “information” society and UK public policy responses to this. It notes, first of all, that utopian perspectives on information societies have little basis in reality and serve only to obscure a widening “digital divide”. It is suggested that UK government policy, whilst to some degree recognising this problem, has focussed on labour market led responses to it, based on training for IT skills and literacy. This, it is argued, neglects the need to create access to and control of infrastructure and resources by excluded people themselves. The public library clearly represents one possible mechanism through which such “informational” inclusion might be achieved, but we argue that thus far public libraries, in comparison with initiatives such as community networks, have not been particularly successful in linking ICT developments to a focus on exclusion. In the end, therefore, we suggest that public Library ICT policy will need to shift from a focus on the creation of a universal “people’s network” to a prioritisation of access to ICT by excluded people and communities. Libraries will thus need to develop proactive ways of encouraging excluded communities and groups to utilise ICT, and working in partnership with agencies with similar aims, and with local people themselves, will be an especially important part of this process (September 2000)