Internet is enormous and far exceeds the volume of speech available to audiences in traditional public fora.  See id. at 868 (referring to “the vast democratic forums of the Internet").  Indeed, as noted in our findings of fact, the Web is estimated to contain over one billion pages, and is said to be growing at a rate of over 1.5 million pages per day.  See id. at 885 (noting “[t]he dramatic expansion of this new marketplace of ideas").  This staggering volume of content on the Internet “is as diverse as human thought,” id. at 870, and “is thus comparable, from the reader’s viewpoint, to . . . a vast library including millions of readily available and indexed publications,” id. at 853.  As a result of the Internet’s unique speech-facilitating qualities, “it is hard to find an aspiring social movement, new or old, of left, right, or center, without a website, a bulletin board, and an email list.”  Kreimer, supra n.27, at 125. “[T]he growth of the Internet has been and continues to be phenomenal.”  Reno, 521 U.S. at 885.

This extraordinary growth of the Internet illustrates the extent to which the Internet promotes First Amendment values in the same way that the historical use of traditional public fora for speaking, handbilling, and protesting testifies to their effectiveness as vehicles for free speech.  Cf.  Martin, 319 U.S. at 145 ("The widespread use of this method of communication [door-to-door distribution of leaflets] by many groups espousing various causes attests its major importance."); Schneider v.  State, 308 U.S. 147, 164 (1939) ("[P]amphlets have proved most effective instruments in the dissemination of opinion.").  The provision of Internet access in public libraries, in addition to sharing the speech-enhancing qualities of fora such as streets, sidewalks, and parks, also supplies many of the speech-enhancing properties of the postal service, which is open to the public at large as both speakers and recipients of information, and provides a relatively low-cost means of disseminating information to a geographically dispersed audience.  See Lamont v.  Postmaster Gen., 381 U.S. 301 (1965) (invalidating a content-based prior restraint on the use of the mails); see also Blount v.  Rizzi, 400 U.S. 410 (1971) (same).  Indeed, the Supreme Court’s description of the postal system in Lamont seems equally apt as a description of the Internet today:  “the postal system . . . is now the main artery through which the business, social, and personal affairs of the people are conducted . . . .” 381 U.S. at 305 n.3.

In short, public libraries, by providing their patrons with access to the Internet, have created a public forum that provides any member of the public free access to information from millions of speakers around the world.  The unique speech-enhancing character of Internet use in public libraries derives from the openness of the public library to any member of the public seeking to receive information, and the openness