There can’t be anything more destructive to the future of a community than cutbacks in library services. Such cuts are a clear indication that the community is against progress and against helping average citizens. It shows that the community is for, living in the past and for helping the rich.

We live in an information society, or more correctly an information explosion. Experts tell us that more information has been made available to us in the last 50 years than in the previous 5,000. The number of TV channels, patents, copyrights, and now web pages has exploded during this time.

Technology has also accelerated change in our lives. Cell phones, cable news channels, fax machines and email have dramatically increased the speed of decision making. The answers to many of life’s important questions are changing with the speed of light. What are the best investments, best careers, or the best cures to a disease right now, can change in a matter of hours.

The library is the average person’s tool for coping with our information society. You can put your head in the sand and ignore the fact that technology and information are changing your life. Or you can live in reality and lean how to use these tools to your benefit.

Believe me, the rich are using information and the new technologies to get even richer. They’ll buy this information at any price, because they know its value. But what the rich don’t know is that in our democracy, much of the best information is free…. if you know where to look. That’s the job of the library. I started my information career getting investment information for Fortune 500 clients. They were rich, but also lazy. They would pay me $100 an hour to get information that anyone could get for free….. from the public library.

If the public library is not available how is the average person going to know that:

- entrepreneurs can get money and help to start their own business by contacting the state office of economic development,

- families can get free medical insurance programs for children and free prescription drug for the whole family from government and non-profit organizations,

- job seekers can get $8,000 to train for a new career,

- the government will send you a free report showing that 50% of back pain operations are not worth while, and

- there are free government lawyers that will fight your insurance company, bill collectors, car dealers or even your employer, if you feel you’re being treated unfairly.

George Bush got a $200 Million grant from the government to build a stadium for his baseball team. Dick Cheney got over $3 Billion from government programs when he was running Halliburton. Sam Donaldson even got his cancer surgery done for free from a government program.

Money will always provide the rich with access to all the benefits and opportunities that our society has to offer. And libraries are our best hope that the rest of society has a place to turn to in order to learn that such opportunities and benefits even exist.


Matthew Lesko
New York Times Best Selling Author and Entrepreneur