Many public libraries face the dilemma that failure to charge for digital information reduces income which cuts opening house which usually results in under-use of all information. Charging for digital information means they fail to attract possible discounts from information providers which reduces access to some digitised sources. Some thought knowledge and information were synonymous while others believed that knowledge was something different, but resulted from information and others that is was to difficult a concept to describe. Everyone, however, believed that every human being had a right to access to it and that every government should develop a national framework of information provision and that these networks should integrate different information systems. Nearly all speakers saw the information society and knowledge society as present and future scenarios and so it was refreshing to hear a few point out that man has always lived in an information society.
Information is and always has been necessary for survival.
The biggest different toady is the economic value placed on information. We only live in an information age in that information has become a commercial product. Technological development and digitisation have vastly increased the amount of information which is publicly available and the speed with which it can be transmitted. They have also increased the commercial possibility of providing information which may deny access to some groups.