The three cultural programs, Kaleidoskope, Ariane and Raphael, have not been very useful for libraries, because their scope has been quite narrow. E.g. the books and reading program Ariane has concentrated in translations. In the coming framework program Culture 2000 libraries will have more possibilities to get support also for their cultural actions. The significance of reading is only growing in future. Demands to enlargen and deepen literacy skills get greater and greater.
Literacy has a special role in guaranteeing the basic citizen competence to everybody.
It is in general interests of the society to offer possibilities to all people for maintaining and developing their literacy. In library work new technologies offer new possibilities to raise service level, too. Good examples can already now be found all over the world, mainly ofcourse in those countries where Internet is used largely. In case you got reach in Internet, the resources your library can offer to the patrons are suddenly multiplied. All of once we have exactly the same resource as British Library or the Library of Congess.