These products would be based on the opinion research but adaptable to local use. The conference participants also articulated the need for an ongoing policy assessment and analysis of the impact of the recently passed Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Act creates a new federal framework in which libraries and their partners must work if they are to effectively articulate their voice as key points of public access, public learning, and community service. In sum . . . With the role and impact of personal computers still fluid in this emerging digital world, now is the time for libraries to seize the opportunity and define their role with an aggressive public education campaign.
Libraries clearly have an enormous reservoir of goodwill to draw on.
Just as they are navigators of information, so they must chart a role for themselves, giving meaning and message to their future institutions and their profession. This is particularly important as commercial undertakings make significant inroads in information provision, and as the youngest Americans turn to their home computers to find information. One key model for building this new network is a further testing of public sentiment toward libraries and other information providers, especially as the impact of the 1996 Telecommunications Act becomes clearer. Also on the possible agenda is crafting effective messages for a comprehensive, community-based public education and communications campaign. As the demographic clouds on the horizon portend, libraries could begin to weaken in public support.