"Libraries do much better job of directly serving poor. Unis…indirectly, if at all…

Libraries efficiently provide valuable services to their communities w/ very little money. Unis…are constantly wasting huge sums of money…loading up 17-to-21-yos w/ crippling…loans.

Libraries are famously impartial & nonjudgmental, & have no agenda other than to provide equitable access to information to anyone who desires it. Most uni departments are rife w/ ideology…hostile to conflicting views.

Libraries are open & free to everyone. What they do only improves people’s prospects. The primary purpose of unis, granting credentials, is by definition exclusionary…improve the prospects of few at expense of others, by fostering environment where people are expected to have degrees before they can do anything of value…

One of these systems claims to serve the poor, be open to differing viewpoints, & drive greater knowledge & learning for all humankind. The other actually does all of these things."

"My son checks online about a college out east he’s curious about. He picks up a few facts and data. And suddenly he’s panicking about his class schedule. We see natural disasters occur – many times live on our televisions or computers – and we become overcome with a desire to help. Again, some of these things are extraordinarily good. But they illustrate the demands placed on our shoulders by having easy access to information.

Technology makes it nearly impossible for many kids to get a break. When I was a 16-year-old who had a bad day, I’d go home, put some headphones on and listen to my favorite album until my dad called me down for dinner. Today, that same 16-year-old might toss on headphones and listen to music on their iPhone. But they also are checking Facebook and texting at the same time. They still are getting sucked into the drama of their life and their friends."

"Undoubtedly libraries are a good thing. The access and training that we provide for technology isn't offered by any other public service (largely because public services are rapidly becoming a dirty word in this gilded age of decadence and austerity), and without our services it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would be a significant dimming.

If you can take yourself out of your first world techie social media smart-shoes for a second then imagine this… [lengthy case study]

So that little melodrama right there is every minute of every day at the public library…The digital divide isn't just access, but also ability, and quality of information, , and the common dignity of having equity of participation in our increasingly digital culture."

"James Joyce's narration leads us through the difficulty of finding knowledge in a pre-Internet era, reminding us how lucky we are to have this technology, despite all its flaws."

"But that network has not always been the Internet, which is Cerf’s point. That is, his argument is that we should not be advocating for access to today’s-most-used network as a basic human, but should be looking for the deeper principles of human equality that require advocacy. Take care of those and access to the Internet will come almost as a matter of course. That’s what I take Cerf to be arguing, anyway, and I think this response fails to address it."