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Equal Access to Information? Evaluating the Accessibility of Public Library Web Sites in the State of Maryland

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Abstract

Public libraries in the United States have a long and proud tradition of providing access to information for all residents. Public libraries have been the equaliser - providing access to books, and both printed and electronic information, regardless of race, gender, religion, economic status, or disability. Since the mid-1990s, public libraries have also been providing direct access to the Internet for patrons who come to visit. And since that first burst of access to the Internet within public library buildings, libraries have been pushing to provide access to their resources through the Internet, so that patrons can search library catalogues, reserve resources and renew materials, and even access digital libraries of documents, all wherever the patrons happen to have Internet access - at home, work, or using mobile phones (Jaeger et al., 2011)

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Correspondence to J. Lazar .

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London

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Lazar, J. et al. (2012). Equal Access to Information? Evaluating the Accessibility of Public Library Web Sites in the State of Maryland. In: Langdon, P., Clarkson, J., Robinson, P., Lazar, J., Heylighen, A. (eds) Designing Inclusive Systems. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2867-0_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2867-0_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-2866-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-2867-0

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