EVERYMAN MILLENNIUM LIBRARY. Set of 8 CD-Roms distributed free to all secondary schools. Also available from Anglia Multimedia pound;250 (single user) pound;750 (site licence) www.anglia.co.uk\millib.

The past is a foreign country,” L. P. Hartley wrote, “they do things differently there.” As the literature of the past becomes increasingly foreign to us, one starts to wonder whether our quick-thrill culture will give up on the effort of actually reading texts written before 1914.

The academic Peter Hollindale recently wrote: “The profusion of 20th-century writing usually squeezes out the past” (The Use of English, Summer 2001). His argument is that while higher education provides a life-support machine for classic texts, even this is increasingly precarious since many degree courses require little reading of pre-20th-century literature. So, for many people, the only real engagement with classic literature is via film and television adaptations. This is despite a national curriculum which prescribes plays, novels, short stories and poetry from the English literary heritage, including two plays by Shakespeare, works of fiction by two major writers published before 1914 and poetry by four major poets published before 1914.

All credit, then, to the Millennium Library Trust, which over the past three years has donated 250 Everyman Classics to 4,500 state secondary schools in the UK and to libraries in 77 countries overseas. The publisher is now appealing for sponsors to enable it to update the library in each school with a further 10 books every year.

There is something refreshingly aspirational in this commitment. Our culture generally emphasises self-betterment based on 15 minutes of fame (Big Brother syndrome) or easy fortune (Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?). The Everyman Library harks back to a different ideal: low-cost access to the greatest works in our culture for anyone eager to learn, regardless of education or social status.

The latest stage in the Everyman venture is the donation of Anglia Multimedia’s Millennium Library. These eight CD-Roms provide masterclasses on the major periods of literature from Chaucer onwards. They profile key texts and authors and provide historical background - something which is emphasised in the national curriculum for English. They also contain an astonishingly comprehensive reference work to established and newer authors, an interactive database which pupils could use to guide their own reading tastes.

This is undoubtedly an important resource for schools which, properly utilised, could prove hugely educational. The original donation of Everyman classics, ranging from Chinua Achebe to Emile Zola, was much appreciated by schools. But while the collection included school-friendly writers such as Dickens, Charlotte Bront , John Steinbeck and George Orwell, most school librarians will confirm that the books were only sporadically borrowed by students.

The CD-Rom package is a different matter and deserves to be built into schemes of work in English and history departments across the country.

The vibrant multimedia introductions show great verve, and some of the resources reveal the context of literature powerfully.

On Modernism Volume I, I listened to the high, strangulated voice of H. G. Wells as he stood on board ship talking prophetically to his interviewer about impending war. On the Shakespeare disc, I listened to George Bernard Shaw reading Richard III. These are invaluable in helping teachers capture the buzz that deserves to accompany literature as much as it does pop music and TV hype.

The CD-Roms are at their best in their media resources and - inevitably - I found myself wishing for more. Pupils need to hear great poetry read aloud, not just to see the words on the page, however well they are showcased. I missed a unifying narrator’s voice and would have liked more video and audio clips.

At times, the language level is high; at other points, it is hugely accessible. Anthony Holden’s question-and-answer session on Shakespeare’s life works a treat. The talking heads of writers such as Terry Pratchett, Will Self, Penelope Lively and others reviewing their favourite books is - for me - the weakest point, with the same clips repeated across all the discs and pitched at a level unlikely to draw in the common (young) reader.

But what a resource this is! The challenge now is for the eight CD-Roms to be properly managed by schools and not allowed simply to fester beside a PC at the back of the library. The materials on the discs need to be built into schemes of work, so that pupils use them to interrogate the literature of the past, to research into different historical contexts and to find springboards for their own reading interests. Used actively and systematically like this, the Everyman Millennium Library could prove one of the most valuable resources ever made available to schools.

Geoff Barton is deputy head and teaches English at Thurston Upper School, Bury St Edmunds