Friday, November 21, 2008

Muddiest Point

I don't know if this counts as a muddiest point, but it's a thought. If a digital library is created in the interest of a specific population that is likely to be able to access the material in terms of how computer literate they are, ought we be concerned about making sure computer illiterate people can access it? Digital libraries are created with the grand intention of democratizing the materials, but in practice, we have to place serious limitations on who can access them anyways to abide by copyright laws. So, I feel like worrying about 'disenfranchising' the user group who are unable to use computers or the Internet is less of a problem than it is made out to be, and is rapidly becoming even less.

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