Across the country, access to the new age of information is being provided by an old institution, the public library. "The public library is the institution of choice to function as the 'safety-net' for electronic access to information. The public library has traditionally been the one government-sponsored institution which has the potential to benefit each and every member of the community, young, old, rich or poor" (Choltco-Devlin 1994). But, even in this venerated public institution, imbalances still exist. Library access to the Internet varies according to different factors, but the most obvious is the difference between urban and rural libraries (McClure 1994). Statistics show that 79 percent of U.S. libraries serving populations of 250,000 or more have an Internet connection, while only 17 percent of libraries serving populations of 25,000 or less are connected (McClure 1994). "Urban libraries are spending, and intend to continue to spend, more on Internet services than their rural counterparts. These findings suggest that the gulf between the 'Internet Have' versus 'Internet Have-not' public libraries, which already exists, may continue to widen in the future" (McClure 1994).
The National Information Infrastructure Act of 1993 provided some resources to improve this situation. It states that librarians, among others including teachers, students and state and local government employees, will be trained in the use of computer networks and the Internet (McClure 1994). However, Charles McClure, in his testimony to a congressional subcommittee on science last year, said, "Federal program support for libraries to accomplish national policy goals related to libraries' access to and use of the information superhighway are woefully inadequate" (1994). He said much could be done in this country to improve the role of libraries on the information highway (1994).