Public Libraries, Portals and Power.

Michael Book
Director of Katto-Meny Co-operative Society
Address: Helsinki, Finland
Phone: +358-9-7515 4150
Fax: +358-9-27090369
E-mail: book@kaapeli.fi
WEB: www.kaapeli.fi/katto

Abstract:

This is a paper on the role of the public library now and henceforward. It approaches the issues of information and power as if Montesquieu still mattered in the information society. It contends that in this society the public library ought to be the Informational power, which balances and checks the traditional Legislative, Executive and Judicial powers.

Concepts of the public library and of "portals" on the Net are discussed. The library, more than other organisations, functions as a portal to the world(s) of information. What is the relation of the library to commercial web-portals? (Compare the ethos of the librarian to that of the salesman).

An overview of what libraries have done on/with the web so far is also attempted. Here, special reference is made to the case of the Helsinki Public Library and to the current Finnish discussion on library and cultural policies.

Some related writings by Michael Book (in Swedish, Finnish and English) can be found at http://www.kaapeli.fi/book

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