{"id":62726,"date":"2017-09-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2017\/09\/04\/libraries\/"},"modified":"2021-02-03T01:11:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T01:11:55","slug":"libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/internet-culture\/deep-dives\/libraries\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the digital world need libraries?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The library I grew up in was at the corner of Neilson and Sewells, on the far east side of Toronto. A stocky brick building flanked by two churches, it was dim inside and smelled of well-loved paperbacks and coffee in Dixie cups. One corner was home to a cluster of off-white computers with fat screens and hippo-teeth keys. There, my friends and I spent hours clunking through typing drills and trying to survive on the Oregon Trail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But over the last decade \u2014 as more homes plugged into high-speed internet, cellphones burrowed into our pockets, and people declared that \u201cprint is dead!\u201d \u2014 I started to worry about the future of libraries, like the one where I spent so much of my childhood. So, I decided to see what I could find out about the role of libraries in our hyper-connected world.<\/p>\n

What I discovered is that today, libraries remain firmly at the heart of communities around the globe. What\u2019s more, they\u2019re actively evolving into information hubs for the digital age. In the United States, 98% of libraries already offer free public wi-fi<\/a>. Last year, 29% of all library-using Americans<\/a> went to the library to use computers or connect to the internet. Those who take advantage of these services are more likely to be young, black, female, and lower income<\/a>, and libraries are playing an important role in offering access and training to people who typically face more barriers to getting online. For example, Americans with less than a high school diploma are more likely than college graduates to say libraries help them protect their personal data from online theft (48% versus 18%)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These same trends are happening worldwide. Libraries on every continent<\/a> are working to enhance their services to meet patron\u2019s evolving needs, while also helping to overcome connectivity challenges that can worsen social exclusion and inequity. \u201cThere are 230,000 public libraries in the world,\u201d said Donna Scheeder, President of the International Federation of Library Associations, in a 2015 interview<\/a>, \u201cand these are the places where people can go when they don\u2019t have access to technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is critical, because fast, reliable, affordable internet remains out of reach for many people around the world. In this week\u2019s episode of Mozilla\u2019s podcast, IRL: Online Life Is Real Life<\/i><\/a>, host Veronica Belmont talks to a wide range of people \u2014 from a mom in Fairfax, Minnesota, to a Syrian refugee living in the Netherlands \u2014 about their struggles to connect to the kind of internet they need, and what they\u2019re doing about it.<\/p>\n

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