CPAs, Librarians, and the Digital Divide

• Published date: 01 January 2015
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Author: Stephanie Joyce Nogler,George E. Nogler
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22021

63

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22021

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Stephanie Joyce Nogler

and George E. Nogler

Is there a “digital divide” between smaller and

larger CPA firms? This article describes how

smaller firms may need access to special-

ized information to help their clients and make

informed decisions. Fortunately, this information

is often available to smaller firms through the

Internet or dedicated public business libraries. The

article suggests some resources available through

dedicated business libraries and the help that’s

often available from research librarians employed

at these facilities. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

C PAs, Librarians, and the Digital Divide

The term digital

divide refers to

those who have

access to information

and communications

technologies and those

who do not. This

was the subject of a

report by the National

Telecommunications

and Infrastructure

Administration of the

U.S. Department of

Commerce entitled

Falling Through the

Net: Defining the Digital

Divide (U.S. Department of

Commerce, National Telecom-

munications and Information

Administration, 1999 ). The term

itself has been traced back to

about 1996.

A more nuanced view of the

digital divide suggests that there

are three aspects that are rel-

evant for organizations or indi-

viduals to take full advantage of

information technology:

1. Access to the physical

equipment and networks.

2. Access to the specific data

and information relevant to

the issue at hand.

3. Possession of the skills

needed to use the data and

information efficiently and

effectively.

The issue of access to the

physical equipment and net-

works, while an issue to the

broader concept of the digital

divide, has little relevance to

practicing CPAs. This article

considers whether there is still

a digital divide between large

national CPA firms and smaller

regional firms with regard to

access to specific data and the

skill sets needed to utilize that

data, and whether libraries and

librarians can help the smaller

regional firms bridge that divide.

Arguably, large national

CPA firms have much greater

resources to acquire proprietary

databases and resources specific

to solving certain accounting

and tax issues faced by their cli-

ents. Public libraries have been a

key component in bridging the

wider digital divide.

We look at the

resources of public

libraries specific

to these issues to

determine whether

public libraries pos-

sess the informa-

tion resources to

bridge this divide.

We consider four

issues reported by

surveying smaller

regional firms to

identify recent prac-

tice issues found by these smaller

firms and consider whether

libraries and librarians can

assist the CPA in resolving these

issues. A local public library is

not likely to have access to the

specific resources required by a

CPA. We, therefore, limited our

research to three dedicated busi-

ness libraries whose resources

are available to the public free of

charge:

1. The Kirstein Business

Library (KBL) of the Bos-

ton Public Library, located

in Boston, Massachusetts,

whose resources—online

and in house—are available

to all citizens of Massachu-

setts.

2. The Science, Industry, and

Business Library (SIBL)