9/11 Commission: Libraries Can Help

The 9/11 Commission Report, which looks broadly at the September 11, 2001 attacks and future responses to terrorism, invokes libraries in "defending our ideals" and communicating such principles to Arab and Muslim audiences. "If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly do the job for us," warns the report in Chapter 12. To do this, the report recommends rebuilding "the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope." It did not detail how United States Information Agency (USIA) libraries have been cut in recent years. The report also stresses the importance of "educational and economic opportunity." In addressing the challenge of cutting the Middle East's illiteracy rate in half by 2010, the report recommends, "Unglamorous help is needed to support the basics, such as textbooks that translate more of the world's knowledge into local languages and libraries to house such materials."