The short school day focuses on rote learning, similar to that in European countries and the Former Soviet Union. It's not really an Israeli invention. It also reflects the lack of serious research libraries available for students in the country. That means an increase in the use of the Internet, which is good, but that study cannot replace a good regular library.

For those who have experienced libraries in many of the developed Western countries are likely to be disappointed by the pathetic library offerings available in Israel.

Everything seems to be downsized beyond belief and the available literature is sometimes very old.

In the past perhaps this would have been a major difficulty or problem and it would have been the source of a great deal of citicism.

However, in today's world with the availability of vast amounts of information online using the Internet, the issue is no longer as serious as it was.

True, it would be very good to have more print materials available for free and readily for everybody to be able to use. There's no question about that. However, in the past when print material was the only documentation that was available then it was indeed a crisis.

Now the level of severity has been reduced from a crisis to merely a sad situation which should have been improved long ago.

There's nothing like the feel of a good book and the ability to browse major collections of books and other documents, to be able to have a feel of the vast amount of information and opinion that is available in the world. There is nothing like browsing through these materials to be able to expand your vision and even your vista.

However, this situation is corrected to some degree with the Internet. It is less of a problem although Israel does not give the same hands on feeling and availability of knowledge.