Glenn Ickler, a former newspaper editor who lives in Hopedale writes this in the Milford Daily News on June 9, 2007. To see the entire article, read >Milford Daily News Online June 9, 2007.
Convincing voters that libraries are a vital part of their community is also a tough sell in an era of ever-rising real estate taxes. Proposition 2 1/2 overrides are becoming increasingly unpopular and public officials are finding it easier to chop library funding than to lay off police officers and fire fighters.
Prop 2 1/2 was designed to limit local tax increases in conjunction with adequate aid from the state. It's not working that way, and the communities are facing higher costs of providing services without the means of meeting them. So there go the libraries, along with numerous school programs and activities.
According to a report done by the Urban Institute and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, libraries are an unappreciated economic engine as a core of a community's literacy and connection with technology and job opportunities.
"Rather than succumbing to obsolescence with the advent of new information technologies, the basic business of public libraries is being recast," the report said. "Public libraries are positioned to fuel not only new, but next economies."
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