Internet Access as a Human Right

Are libraries an adequate way of providing this access?

Like, I assume, pretty much everyone else who reads your LJ, I'm a huge fan of libraries, and believe that they are an excellent method of providing access to quite a few things in your third category, and probably some in your second category. (And, sadly, in many cities, they're de facto providing some things in the first category -- the library is a safe, climate-controlled place that homeless people can use for shelter during the day, but that's a different issue.)

They're a good source of education for some people, although, unfortunately, these days we're less interested in education than certification. Self-education doesn't count in our modern world, because the important thing is that you can DOCUMENT that you've taken a course, rather than that you actually have the knowledge and skills.

They're a source which can be used to provide the kinds of information that people need to be active, involved members of a democracy.

And they are a source of internet access, both through public terminals, and through free WiFi.

Last time I was at my local library (which was 2 or 3 years ago, admittedly), the only computer terminals they had were for searching their catalogue only.

You're German, right?

The ONE thing that the United States does better than ANY other country in the world is libraries. Our health care sucks (although, with luck, in five years we may be where the rest of the world was thirty years ago), our food and water safety is terrible, our criminal "justice" system rivals Stalinist Russia -- but our libraries are better than any other libraries on the planet.

At my local library, there are four or five computer stations specifically for searching the catalog, and about forty for internet access and general use, including a half-dozen or so set up for Spanish-speaking residents, next to the international book and magazine section.

I am not certain that libraries have the capacity, with their limited budgets, to provide access for everyone... not without pushing out the actual *books*, magazines, newspapers, and all the other little things libraries do that are actually big things... There is something ineffable about simply *browsing the stacks* and seeing what pops out at you... since a well-organised library has things organised by topic and sub-topic, you can find things you wouldn't otherwise find relevant to what you're doing... they *still* don't have that working via computer even though it's been a research topic since I was a lad....

Librarians do see this as their job, though.

If we are arguing that access to information and to the ability to be active on the global community is a human right, then we, as a society, have a duty to fund that process.

Those funds should go to libraries for this purpose. Libraries are set up for it; librarians are all required to take coursework in it. This is their JOB. Why not use that fact?

Also: Making something universal has a profound effect. Universal suffrage had a profound effect on civil rights. Universal healthcare means a far better quality of life for everyone... (I have participated in this firsthand. It's pretty darn awesome.) The Internet is a *massive* force for change. I don't know .... yeah, I do. We Americans have had universal *telephone* service for decades. It's time to pull that into the 21st Century. If everyone has the web in their pocket... the implications could be staggering, with a reasonably high probability.