The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the state’s libraries have partnered as part of a national project aimed at broadening access to financial education tools and consumer assistance across Rhode Island.
“It’s really important consumers be protected in the financial marketplace,” said Richard Cordray, director of the CFPB, who was joined by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and other officials during a Monday announcement at the Marian J. Mohr Memorial Library in Johnston. “I’m glad to announce an important partnership with Rhode Island’s Office of Libraries and Information Services to make this state’s already trusted libraries centers of financial education.”
“This is big news for the library community across America,” said Reed. “This kind of thing could only be achieved locally with strong cooperation of the community.”
Rhode Island represents CFPB’s first statewide collaboration. The initiative began with nine library systems, and quickly grew to include more than 50 library systems and approximately 400 branches.
“Adding Rhode Island to this partnership means another 48 public libraries that include 70 branch locations,” said Cordray. “That is about one million more people who will have access to free financial education materials, resources and trained librarians.”
Karen Mellor, acting chief of the Office of Library and Information Services; Jenifer Bond, president of Rhode Island Library Association; Jon Anderson, head librarian at the Mohr Library; and representatives of libraries from around the state were also present on Monday.
The program was created to help local librarians broaden access to financial education tools and help consumers with topics ranging from managing credit and credit card debt to student loans and other financial problems.
Reed praised Cordray, and said with the CFPB “for the first time we have an agency exclusively dedicated to protecting consumers.”
“Since its inception, the Bureau has recovered $3.8 billion in refunds for 14 million consumers who have been victimized or misled by enterprises throughout the country,” said the senator.
Reed said “from buying a car to getting a college loan to buying a house, all of those things require much more sophistication than was necessary a few years ago.”
Cordray said providing librarians with training and access to the tools needed to help consumers is at the heart of the initiative.
“Our goal is to provide librarians with a collection of educational resources and tools. We’re going to help libraries identify and connect with local resources in their communities. We’re going to help them build an online community of local financial education librarians and want to be able to provide helpful training for library staff and managers. Those are the things librarians told us they wanted and needed,” he said. “From the very beginning this project listened to librarians from across the United States who told us about their desires, needs, limitations and restraints. And together we are going to develop strategies and resources that libraries can customize and use. You could say this project was built by librarians for librarians.”
“This is a program that will make a real difference to Rhode Islanders,” said Mellor. “In an age where people are constantly bombarded with information and need a myriad of skills to survive and prosper, the library helps people gain the digital literacy, the health literacy and financial literacy they need to make informed decisions.”
“Now more than ever the citizens of Rhode Island need help navigating the maze of information that is available,” said Bond. “We find ourselves awash in a sea of information, and it is as confusing and overwhelming as it is exciting. It’s difficult to know which information is the most authoritative and least biased on a particular topic. The information marketplace is particularly crowded, and we as librarians and library staff know where people can turn to make sense of that information marketplace.”
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