Library Lacerations; An Article Summary

As a business major I've spent some time studying economics, and as a member of a nation whose economy has seen recent decline I can hardly afford to not pay attention to what makes an economy stronger. One of the most important things to a strong economy is an educated workforce. Education betters not only the individual, but the society as a whole because human capital is a crucial resource, and with more resources comes more productive capabilities. 

Unfortunately the Texas State Legislature is not of the same mind. In this article in the Austin Chronicle, it is stated that our legislators have passed a bill in both the senate and the house to cut 28 million dollars from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, completely eliminating three statewide programs that make information available to the masses. The three under the chopping block are the Loan Star Libraries program, which provided 6 million dollars in funding to all but 20 Texas libraries in 2010 on a grant basis, the TexShare program, which provides access the the world's best databases to any Texan for a little over a tenth of what each library would have to pay individually for the same resources, and the Texas State Law Library, which provides publicly accessible legal reference material, hosts historic legal documents, and provides research services for the Texas Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, and the Texas Attorney General's Office. In other words, you can kiss your public library (and all of the great services provided there) goodbye. No more money for new equipment or books. No more access to job training, genealogy databases, or searchable, online, reliable reference materials. No more online access to your legal options if you're in a bind. Nada.

You'd think that Texas could find a better place to tighten its belt instead of cutting off the flow to its brain.