Libraries - sign of community health

Libraries - sign of community health
Siskiyou Daily News: June 29, 2010 by Dr. Judy Broeckel

Health can be viewed as occuring at multiple levels. One could be a healthy individual, part of a healthy small unit like a family, and/or part of a healthy large unit like a nation.

In looking at big units/groups of people, some patterns emerge. Very poor nations/groups have a lot of certain types of health problems like parasites and starvation, and certain types of infections are more common.

Very wealthy nations/groups have the classic diseases that go with wealth: obesity, heart disease and cancer being examples.

The health of states or nations can be measured by more than just counting the number of people with certain diagnoses. Healthy states have vibrant economies, personal liberties, and busy, productive people.

One of the benchmarks of civilization is literacy. READ MORE !

. . . in other news:

Daily Kos: Finally! Someone goes after the Big Literacy Monopoly
Like me I suspect many of you are sick of public libraries and how they are constantly trying to improve communities, quality of life and literacy.

LosingLibraries.org - The Big (Awful) Picture
an effort to map and chronicle the full range of cuts, closings, and diminished library services nationally. From Library Journal in partnership with Mandy Knapp and Laura Solomon (responsible for SaveOhioLibraries.com).