Director of the Simmons School of Library and Information Science SLIS West program Eric Poulin published an editorial in The Shoestring, “Opinion: Federal library funding cuts will hit rural areas the hardest.” In the article, Poulin warns that funding cuts to social services will result in a lack of access to electronic resources that will disproportionately hurt small, rural communities and their schools.
“Data from the MBLC confirms that school-aged individuals account for 60% of the usage of these databases,” notes Poulin. “Without access to them, it appears that Massachusetts students will be learning to conduct college-level research woefully underprepared.”