and learning communities. Networked villages, which provide electronic access to 

businesses and community groups, are a concept that is increasingly being fostered as a

way to bring people online. There are agencies that use the online environment to

devolve activity and responsibility back down to the local level. 

This move is not just related to government policies. Encouraging communities to go

online is the major driver for VICNET, Victoria s community network managed by the

State Library of Victoria. VICNET has trained, encouraged and hosted 2,000 community

websites. Tampere Library in Finland, and the local museum there, sponsor a website

that captures local history and people's stories. Brisbane City Council is working with a

number of low income communities to improve IT literacy skills and to encourage a

sense of community through ICTs.

E government signals a different way of government interaction with the community.

E government is customer centred and integrated, looking outside its walls to determine

how people want to relate to government, and inside to determine how to organise and

link services to meet these expectations. This innovative approach calls for new ways of

servicing clients, managing operations and working with partners such as municipalities,

hospitals, school boards, higher education institutions, agencies, the federal government

and the private sector.

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The Ontario government is creating an environment for the

people of Ontario to engage actively in the global digital society. This would appear to

signal a significant change for government   to seek cooperation with other groups to

identify the best ways of serving the community, and to engage the community in how to

best deliver services.

A library service that has put whole communities online is Oxford County Library in

Ontario, Canada. Oxford County has one town and sixteen village libraries. The library

initiated the county's wide area wireless network (COIN   Council of Oxford Integrated

Network.) Located in South western Ontario, the library serves residents of the County

of Oxford, and each library branch is a Community Access Program (CAP) site. Eleven

branches are also Service Canada Access Centres, providing information on the Canadian

Government and its services to the public. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, in

partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture & Recreation, has provided

funding for the Gates Corner in Oxford Centre branch and the Gates Training Lab in

the Beachville Information Centre, home of Information Access Oxford. The library has

piloted access to Service Canada and hopes to become an outlet for municipal government

services soon. The Chief Executive Officer, Sam Coghlan recognises that working with

partners is essential, but says,  putting services online is not enough to guarantee 

ubiquitous access. We need to make sure that people who need access, get it and

libraries are the ones to do this. 

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