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Literacy and poverty are national concerns. Both of these issues can be alleviated by providing citizens with access to the resources to educate themselves and find employment. Currently, this need is served by libraries. As the saying goes: A city with a great library is a great city. All communities, however large or small, deserve access to our nation's wealth of information and the means for self-expression. Libraries have an institutional responsibility to uphold intellectual freedom, with the tacit goal of providing the materials for continued self-betterment and development. As the end goals of the library are egalitarian, libraries look to maintain local and national support by mirroring the needs and wants of their respective service populations, within the scope of the services provided. The intended community is in turn allowed access to the materials and programs that the library may offer. Of course, these programs work best when they are based on the community's needs and resources; as is usually the case, and not only as a result of partial governmental funding. This mutual shaping is a priceless call-and-response necessary for community development and identity. This sense of identity will help to alleviate the pressures of poverty, to retain educated and talented members from the community, to break the cycle of familial illiteracy, and to affect the overall situation of community youth. The library's geography and patrons customize their branch's holdings over time via usage and circulation statistics. Libraries are largely funded by federal and local taxes and grants that are doled out via specific parameters and patron usage data. But while each library may be unique, as an institution they are nationally ubiquitous fixtures whose impetus towards equity and access mirror our nation's basic values and deserve a more secure role in our society. Areas described by common poverty are hit most detrimentally when library funding is cut back. Poverty generally exists alongside illiteracy, unemployment, neglect, and violence. Communities that are allowed to slip into dysfunction tend to not have resources offered to improve infrastructure and quality of life. When the general populace's skill set begins to stagnate, the effects of the ailments of poverty paired with poor education on adults, and especially on children, are nearly insurmountable. Even those who attain a level of education that is comparatively higher than what is offered in their respective communities typically leave those communities upon completing school to find jobs with adequate pay or safer communities. What this out-migration does to communities is entirely degrading, even over just a short period of time. It is of great importance for communities to provide opportunities for their local populace, and ultimately to retain their most prized citizens who can eruditely assess and overcome local shortcomings. What funding libraries can do for communities is bridge the socio-economic gaps that have opened up over the last hundred years. Literacy, in this new context where technology and information work on our culture, must take on new definitions, with new efforts put forth for its promotion. Within our culture, isolation, both geographic and technological, is an alienating and complex factor. Isolation means being without access to the information that would provide better tools for further access and participation in society and the full experience of the reciprocal riches of democracy. The nature of isolation is one that invites a decline in resources, and deeper societal constructs, en masse and for the individual. The library of a community in need must find creative and engaging ways to maintain and exhibit relevance against these grave pressures. The community in need must recognize the importance of their library, and be vocal in their support. When considering gynecomastia surgery, Pittsburgh residents can learn more about this procedure at http://www.example.com/blah_blah_blah.html.
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