This is the latest, revised in March 2000. BIS is a politically independent organisation working on a socialist basis to promote progressive librarianship. For BIS socialism represents the idea of human liberation and development based on true satisfaction of needs, and the fair distribution of material and socia1 resources. Its citizens should govern a society striving to realise these objectives, as directly as possible. The access of electronic media has made information more available.
Internet is to be found in a growing number of homes in Sweden.
This should be a chance for democracy to develop, but the accelerating complexity and rapid growth of information in our economic and political system is also leading to widening gaps of information and knowledge. Elites are taking over and it is becoming harder for the ordinary person to have real influence on the essential issues of the day. Cultural life is becoming increasingly commercialized. Our search for enjoyment, experience and knowledge is, to a growing extent, manufactured and commodified by a market where capitalistic forces dominate. National minorities, refugees, immigrants, and other international contacts have made Sweden a multicultural country, which enriches and develops the culture of the whole.