Public libraries were founded to support the information needs of the community, they are funded by tax money and owned by the public. Lankes focused on the role of the library in an expanded definition, librarians as probem solvers. That is, if there was an ecological disaster, librarians could be part of the 'first responder team'. This makes perfect sense.
In arguably the greatest Science Fiction trilogy of all time, Issac Asimov's Foundation, the story starts with a prediction that the Galactic Empire would come to an end. To prevent the destruction of the human race, an Encyclopedia is created to capture the knoweldge needed to re-create the Empire. In a very similar fashion, librarians capture and catalogue existing knowledge that could be used in addressing potential human disasters, including the possible extinction of human knowledge.
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