As heartsick as I am about the entire Iraq war situation, I thought I'd point a link out that demonstrates the real world ramifications of the economic funding which supports it:
http://www.mailtribune.com/...
It's a post from my local newspaper, and we are actively closing down all our libraries in my county owing to budget cuts. I'll leave you with a quote from Ray Bradbury taken directly from the Wikipedia entry I just googled:
"In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451 I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction."
There's very good rationales for this decision: The timber subsidies that funded their operation for our state are disproportional relative to other states, possibly the internet has made libraries a luxury, and others. I am a passionate reader, and like a lot of people it's hard for me to frame my emotional response to this innovation in a positive, constructive way.
http://www.mailtribune.com/...
http://www.mailtribune.com/...
http://www.mailtribune.com/...
http://www.mailtribune.com/...
There's lots more, Just type "Mail Tribune" in google. Then type, "Libray, closure"