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Even as we're sitting in this room, the world of libraries, as we once knew them, is changing. Digitization is bringing information to people's homes and laptop computers, maintaining library collections and buildings are becoming more expensive, and communities are making difficult decisions with their limited tax dollars.
Probably now more than ever this Commission needs to help libraries with their current roles and help them to define new roles so that libraries will remain important institutions in their communities.
Just this past weekend, a lead article on the front page of the Ann Arbor News highlighted a young woman who was homeless in Philadelphia. And the lure of drugs or money from prostitution was ever present.
She found hope and comfort in the public library. The library was her oasis. There she could use the computers and by e-mail, she could contact her family and search for options. Having dealt with social workers and feeling that she could do better, she typed the words in a Google search social work careers and found the University of Michigan heading the top of the list.
She bought a one-way ticket from Philadelphia and came to the U of M campus, found a job with the social work department, and last Saturday graduated from the local community college. This young woman's life was saved by the Philadelphia Public Library.
Certainly there are examples of these success stories throughout America. How many people have found answers to health, career, or financial questions at their public libraries that have changed their lives? Measuring outcomes is very difficult. But these are the stories that resonate with funders and policymakers. What is the value of one life- changing answer or what is the value of a human life?
Last year we identified our goals as appraising library and information services, strengthening the relevance of library and information services, and promoting research and development.
Specifically we decided to focus on four major areas: emergency preparedness, health communication and the role of libraries, adequacy and deficiencies of current library and information resources, part of our statutory responsibility, and information dissemination about the relationship based on scientific research and evidence between school libraries and educational achievement.
Other subject areas are library services for the aging, which is one of our statutory responsibilities, and international library and information science issues, the role of libraries and library-like organizations as distribution centers for HIV-AIDS information for citizens of developing countries.
[The rest of the May 2005 Commission meeting addressed these issues and set plans for future Commission initiatives and activities]
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