Digital libraries are too useful to be only for the academic elite or urban areas.
Whether you’re the parent of an elementary school student, a working mother going to college part-time or a senior citizen needing accurate medical information, a well-stocked national digital public library system could help you.
We believe its governance should ideally be public, just like the one for your hometown library system (though a nonprofit approach would work with sufficient openness and participation by public librarians). And by the way, we love local libraries. The public system proposed would strengthen them, not replace them. We want this library system to focus on public library needs rather than be lumped in with academic libraries; campus priorities can clash dramatically with those of taxpayers looking for practical information or free entertainment. That is why we need separate public and academic systems even though the two could share much content, technical services, and some board members.
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