ABSTRACT
The new information and communications technologies (ICTs) are currently playing a major role in redefining the public role of libraries in the information society. The growth and spread of networked technologies and associated organizational forms suggest that large public bureaucracies engaged in the provision of knowledge will wither away (Castells 2000). These technologies also create the prospect of globalized private education companies usurping the role of public institutions in the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the sphere of education. This chapter examines these prospects by investigating the digitization of the services provided by the British Library: one of the leading global brands in knowledge provision.
