Millions of Americans, myself included, love visiting their local public library to check out books, attend community programs, or study. Libraries are so much more than free book repositories, though. They are also some of the most important community health hubs in big cities and rural towns alike.Public libraries – particularly those in rural and small towns – have relied on federal funding since 1956 to maintain staffing and deliver health programs to communities. For the first time in nearly 70 years, the Trump administration is moving to eliminate that funding altogether. The result would be catastrophic for public libraries and the millions of Americans who rely on them to access health information, find links to health care, and take refuge during hard times.I wrote about federal funding for public libraries and the consequences of eliminating it for WBUR’s Cognoscenti earlier this week. You can read more here. The post Libraries are health hubs: why eliminate them? first appeared on The Incidental Economist.