Although the library will provide access to the Web at no charge, users recently have been limited to 20 minutes on-line when others were waiting. The system eventually will include nearby printers to reproduce documents displayed on the screen. At the Central Library, downtown at 500 McKinney, the new computers will show both text and images, using the Mosaic software program. At the 34 branch libraries, they will show text only, via a program called Lynx. Some thinkers have warned that lack of access to computers by the nation's poorer citizens is widening class divisions in America.
Researchers say the typical current Internet user is a white male.
Another 54 will be distributed throughout the building. Even the smallest branches will have three computers with Internet access, and the larger branches will have 10, said Lou Caldwell, assistant library director. Although much has been said and written about the abundance of sexually oriented material on the web, Caldwell said library officials have no current plans to censor adult users, so long as they aren't bothering anyone. Back to HCI Home Page.