This library was born out of a dual set of values. First and foremost, it is a tribute to the informational value of the Internet. Secondly, it is a tribute to the valuable acquisition and indexing policies of traditional libraries.

It is our belief there is a great lack of organized information on the Internet. This is partly due to the general acceptance of search engines as "the ultimate research tool"; which is an unfortunate reality for many Internet users.

We believe there are several significant shortcomings with most Internet search engines. First, they are non-discriminatory of information content. Secondly, they are incapable of making value judgements in regard to the informational sources they "serve up".

We agree with Dr. Henry H. Bauer, of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, when he contrasted the scientific community's "knowledge filter" with the popular notion of an "information explosion". In his essay titled, "Ethics in Science", he wrote: "The human urge to know and to convince others is a pandemonium of fantasies and folklore, hallucinations and religious cults, myth and pseudo-science, not just empirical and logical investigation." He explains how "true knowledge" is actually the result of a scientifically-based filtering process, rather than the accumulation of information. In summarizing his thoughts, he wrote: "Contrast this filtering with the popular notion of an "information explosion" that implies a crisis of coping with new knowledge; when rather it's a matter of weeding out from a mass of rubbish, a small amount of valid, useful, meaningful stuff. This model would suggest a different way of doing things than is now the generally accepted one. We seem to think that more research is better, and that publishing original research is more worthy than writing review articles or books. But perhaps, given the mass of rubbish that needs filtering, perhaps less research would be better than more?! Maybe writing review articles and textbooks should be rewarded more than producing research articles?!"

As the Internet becomes an increasingly important information source for Americans (especially school children), we believe it is incumbent upon a civilized society to try and create cyber libraries that are discriminatory in nature. Otherwise, the "good information" on the World Wide Web could get swallowed up in a sea of commercialism, misinformation and offensive materials from social predators. We believe "good information" should be protected from such threats.

We are strong supporters of the TechnoRealism Movement, promoted by such authors as David Shenk ("Data Smog" and "The end of patience") and Douglas Rushkoff ("Coercion: Why we listen to what they say").

The "Principles of TechnoRealism" are outlined at "www.technorealism.org".

Several of the principles that we find particularly important are, "Information wants to be protected", "Technologies are not neutral", "Information is not knowledge" and "Wiring the schools will not save them". If you are unfamiliar with the TechnoRealism movement, we hope you will check out the website listed above, as well as any other related sources that you can find. The TechnoRealism Movement is evidence of a social awareness whose time has come. Here at the "White House Cyber Library", we want to be part of "putting feet to those ideas".

As far as "information protection" is concerned, we have determined that it is not sufficient to merely "curse the darkness". We must try to light a candle and hope that others will join us to promote the vision of a "World Wide Library", where information is protected and treasured.

These are the reasons the "White House Cyber Library" was created.