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Article: Will libraries survive.
- Article from:
- The American Prospect
- Article date:
- November 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 The American Prospect, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In a Washington Post interview a couple of years ago, Bill Gates discussed his plans to give away the bulk of his fortune and suggested he already had in mind doing with the personal computer "something like what Carnegie did with libraries where he said, `Okay, books are this empowering thing that people... should have access to.'" That was presumably the impetus for the announcement in late 1997 of two grants programs for public libraries, one consisting of $200 million worth of software from the Microsoft Corporation, the other of $200 million from the personal fortunes of Bill and Melinda Gates, directed at providing digital technology and internet access to ...