Libraries in the Community

Remember the roles of your public library, and their importance to the broader community.

This morning the Americans for Libraries Council released a major report funded by the Gates Foundation.

The report argues that public libraries are poised to lead the way to solutions to today’s pressing community problems, including providing a safe and engaging place for teens; building a strong and literate workforce; and extending access to technology. Taking on such challenges is also the best bet for libraries to strengthen their communities and their own funding futures.

There is a future for public libraries in the Internet age. Even with the vast and increasing amount of information available on the Internet and more competition for public funding, Americans say that public libraries will continue to play a vital
role in communities. A strong majority says that if their public library were to shut down, they would feel “that something essential and important has been lost, affecting the whole community” (78 percent). And the feeling that libraries are central to healthy communities is even more common among those who are most actively engaged in communities — the voters, volunteers and contributors who make communities strong and can usually be counted on to raise a ruckus when
things go wrong.

There is life outside the law library – and the law.