Our Founding Fathers believed that if democracy were to flourish all citizens must have free and equal access to information regardless of status or income. That was the reason behind establishing the Public Library System, a hallmark of our free and democratic society. But, that was yesterday. What about the demands of our modern, fast-paced, technology-driven society?
Today, the role of public libraries is just as critical if not more. To begin with, we're living in an age where access to information is vital to every citizens ability to function as an informed and contributing member of society and to compete in an information-based economy; whether a student, researcher, business person or average citizen.
Second, the widening gap between educated and non-educated, between middle-class and poor, has stranded an increasing number of our fellow citizens in situations where they have little or no access to information to improve their lives and those of their family. Public libraries serve that need, assuring that information access is not a privilege reserved just for the elite. Then there is the alarming issue of ever-dropping literacy rates. Public libraries have been and are continuing to be in the forefront of efforts to increase literacy, teaching children, immigrants and ordinary citizens basic reading skills and how to access information.
For many U.S. citizens, access to a public library is a mainstream priority. According to a recent study published by the On-Line Computer Library Center (OCLC), 1,116,000,000 citizens visited the 139,800 U.S. Public Libraries in 2002. The same study cited that five times more people visit U.S. public libraries each year than attend professional and college football, basketball, baseball and hockey games. Another contemporary measure, U.S. public library cardholders outnumber Amazon customers by almost 5-1 and each day, U.S. libraries circulate nearly four times more items than Amazon handles, some 5,400,00 units.
Public libraries have, and continue to be in the mainstream of our community life, meeting needs for democracy and citizenship, economic and social development, lifelong learning and cultural diversity.
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