In his State of the Union Address in January 1994, President Clinton called for every library in America to be connected to the national information superhighway by the year 2000. This superhighway, the Internet, is an international computer network encompassing thousands of smaller interconnected networks. Various Internet applications for libraries, impacts of Internet connectivity, and recommendations for future library involvement are described in this Digest. The responsibility for program and policy support for universal connectivity needs to come from federal, state, and local governments, and from all who work within the library community. Librarians use many Internet communications and service utilities.
Librarians use E-mail to communicate with colleagues and customers.
They participate in electronic discussion groups, share experiences and ideas with other librarians, and create and monitor discussion groups of interest to their customers. Librarians use Telnet to connect to remote computer resources. Internet's Impact on Libraries Internet services and resources influence library services. Libraries frequently take the lead by introducing the Internet to user communities in industry, academia, and K-12 schools, and often provide training and access for customers as budgets allow. Public libraries are beginning to offer similar services to the public at large.