Your library. It will no longer be an alien place, a place frequented by the educated elites whom they believe are their oppressors, but a known and friendly place.
Predictor: Wolfe, Gene
Prediction, in context:In a 1994 speech for the American Library Association Annual Conference in Miami, Gene Wolfe writes: ”You are ideally positioned to make the benefits of the information superhighway available to those to whom they would otherwise be denied. I said a while ago that a highway is of benefit only to those who can own and drive a car, a truck, or a motorcycle. You can be the Greyhound and Trailways of the information superhighway … You can make ‘home’ computers available to the people who cannot have them in their own homes. Using them, people whom the educational system and the economic system have failed will be able to explore the bewildering array of programs that are available to them on the city, county, state and federal levels, and can be coached by software through the completion of the necessary applications, which they can then submit over the Net. That will not just give them a reason to learn to read; it will actually teach them computer skills that may permit them to land jobs. And in the process they will have learned to read. Think of it; at the same time that they see the need, they will be acquiring the skill. Furthermore, they will have acquired it in the library. Your library. It will no longer be an alien place, a place frequented by the educated elites whom they believe are their oppressors, but a known and friendly place.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: Libraries/Databases
Name of publication: American Library Association
Title, headline, chapter name: Libraries on the Superhighway
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Printed in Information Technology and LibrariesVol. 14, Issue 4, Page 219ISSN: 07309295
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney