Ben's Bits

In August 2004 I read an article by computer industry columnist John C. Dvorak about the digital divide being more about computer literacy and less about what equipment people have. At the time I was impressed by the article and searched for a copy to add to my digital article morgue of interesting bits but was unable to locate an electronic copy. The article was published in Computer Shopper magazine which is a somewhat sketchy publication and has changed hands and layouts several times. Of course they're one of the few computer magazines that doesn't post all their columns online. I held on to the original paper copy of that article for some time before deciding that I would never be able to find it when I wanted it if I kept the paper copy and recycling it.

Tonight I was catching up on some of my periodical reading and ran across a new column by Dvorak about democracy on the net which triggered a reminder about that old column. I decided that being an expert researcher in grad school and all I should be able to find a digital copy. I spent some time (probably too much) and tried all my usual research sites to no avail. I guess none of the big article reference houses (ProQuest, EBSCO, SIRS, etc.) think Computer Shopper is worth indexing and they're probably right. On one of my last ditch efforts I was able to use an obscure research site for children doing school reports called the "Student Resource Center" which is run by Thomson Publishing/The Gale Group and which my local public libraray system subscribes to. Mission accomplished, one more article added to my personal morgue.