NREN for All: Insurmountable Opportunity — Text and Context

The Little Girl as a Test Case

Polly returns repeatedly to the rural schoolgirl, using her to expose gaps in the NREN's promise. While Gore imagined her dialing into the Library of Congress, Polly asks how she will reach the network at all. The family may live miles from an "entrance ramp," facing expensive long-distance calls, or lack a computer, modem, or phone line entirely. Polly sharpens the point with a memorable analogy: "What good is a superhighway if all you've got is a tricycle?" This recurring figure anchors the article's skepticism, grounding abstract policy in a specific, vulnerable user.

From Grand Challenges to Grand Questions

Polly contrasts the NREN's touted "grand challenges"—collaborative research, digital libraries, remote manufacturing—with her own list of "Grand Questions." The first, and most developed, concerns access. She notes that the Internet, called the "Interim NREN," is the current reality, but rural and low-income communities may remain disconnected. The article's structure mirrors this tension: it begins with visionary bullet points, then systematically undercuts them with practical obstacles. Polly does not reject the NREN's potential, but insists that policy must address the gap between infrastructure and actual use.

Legislative Details and Digital Library Mandates

Midway through, Polly reproduces excerpts from the NREN bill, including specific appropriations for digital libraries. The National Science Foundation is directed to develop prototype digital libraries of scientific data, while NASA must create databases of remote-sensing images. Funding escalates from $10 million in 1993 to $50 million in 1997 for each agency. These details ground the article in legislative reality, but Polly does not comment on their adequacy. Instead, she lets the numbers speak, leaving readers to weigh the scale of investment against the access barriers she has raised.

Resources and the Librarian's Toolkit

A sidebar lists reports and studies, including McClure et al.'s Public Libraries and the INTERNET/NREN and a NCLIS report on library roles in the network. Polly also points to an FTP site for documents on academic freedom. This practical appendix reflects her dual role as network manager and librarian: she provides tools for readers to pursue the issues further. The article thus functions as both a critique and a resource, equipping librarians to engage with NREN policy. The closing sections, however, shift to Project Gutenberg's copyright and donation information, which are not part of Polly's original text.

Polly's article is best read as a policy intervention from a librarian's vantage point, not a technical blueprint. Readers should note how she uses a single imagined user—the rural girl—to test the NREN's promises. The excerpts provided are incomplete; the full article likely develops additional "Grand Questions" and may offer solutions. Approach the text as a snapshot of early 1993 debates, when the NREN was newly law but its implementation uncertain.

That little girl in the NREN piece—she stayed with me long after I closed the page, wondering if the promises meant anything where she stood. The same weight lingers in Boy Labour and Apprenticeship — Background and Themes, where policy words drift far above the actual lives of children who just needed a fair chance. It’s a quiet ache, that gap.