Library and Information Science

The current state of the Internet public access in U. S. public libraries, especially their effort toward providing equal access and its user instruction, were surveyed and examined. Web pages were collected and analyzed for forty-eight libraries offering the Internet public access. At the same time, a questionnaire was sent to those libraries via e-mail, and six responded. More than half of the libraries surveyed take policy in accordance with the ALA interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights regarding such matters as children’s access and responsibilities of libraries. And more than three-fourth offer user instruction for internet services. However, despite these efforts toward providing equal access, Internet access is substantially limited in many libraries because of such conditions for use as charge, time-limit, and so on.