The librarian’s tale

The librarian’s tale
Too much demand for too few terminals

USUALLY by ten in the morning at the Erna Fergusson public library in Albuquerque a dozen people are waiting in line to use the computers. Shortly after the doors opened on a weekday this summer there was someone typing at every screen. Two young girls dressed an online doll together; next to them a man in a Dallas Cowboys cap applied for a job at a hardware chain. He’s living with his parents for a while, he explained, and he doesn’t like to wait to use the internet.

Almost all of America’s public libraries provide free internet access. Over the past two years, hard-hit Americans have been economising by cancelling their broadband contracts at home and looking to public libraries to fill the gap. At the same time, companies and government agencies are saving money by moving job applications and services online; so a rush of new visitors is arriving at libraries just as the local governments that fund them run out of money.

Full story in The Economist