Archive

2019 Internet Hall of Fame Inductee Interviews: Jean Armour Polly

Probably the thing that I’m most known for would be help­ing to evan­ge­lize the use of the Internet in pub­lic libraries. In the United States now, if you walk into a library you’ll see pub­lic com­put­ers set out and peo­ple can get free time on them. But it was­n’t always like that. 

Jean Armour Polly’s Internet Hall of Fame 2019 Induction Speech

I’d like to focus on thank­ing the Internet Society for rec­og­niz­ing the impor­tant part that pub­lic librar­i­ans have played in help­ing to grow the reach of the Internet and its use by everybody.

Hopes and Fears for the Future of the Internet: Jean Armour Polly

A lot of these things were pre­dict­ed, and we were told about them—we were warned about them. Things like loss of pri­va­cy and malev­o­lence on the Internet and mal­ware. We were warned, and a lot of us um, put on our rose-colored glass­es and said oh well, let’s go chas­ing water­falls anyway.