In 2000, Allen Andersson, chairman of Paperboy Ventures, launched the Riecken Foundation. His goal? To use a quintessentially democratic institution – a library – to bring prosperity and opportunity to Central Americans.

In countries with no public library tradition and where free Internet access is a radical notion, the foundation has built 61 lending libraries with high-quality books and free Internet. Every week, 11,000 unique visitors enter a Riecken library. Some travel miles to open a book. The foundation’s first urban library, in a poor and violent neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, is just the second public library in the city of 1 million and its only lending library.

Riecken libraries are locally managed for the benefit of their communities. Many sit in villages where people face extreme poverty, defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1 a day. The libraries’ sustainability is ensured through a mosaic of partnerships, local and international, public and private.

Riecken libraries are noisy, colorful pulse points that spark a spirit of discovery. Preschoolers clamber in for story hours, students tackle homework, teenagers join debate clubs, and adults read books and magazines or search online for business opportunities. Library scanners and computers are used to e-mail photos or to Skype relatives who have migrated, providing a lifeline that keeps families united.

The libraries have inspired Central Americans to launch public service initiatives, to master new technologies, to take part in the growth of their own communities and to monitor public institutions – pushing, as a result, for greater transparency and improved services.

Central America is a region of rich possibilities. It is also a region of deep inequities. Riecken libraries address weaknesses in the social safety net through child literacy and youth leadership programming. UNESCO’s 2008 “Education for All Global Monitoring Report” concluded that libraries and centers with information technology are essential to improving public education, which is poor in Honduras and Guatemala. Education is a critical indicator of a child’s future competitiveness in the job market.

The libraries are also clearinghouses for technology. A World Bank study found that digital literacy opens new markets to rural areas at the same time it encourages public sector transparency. The 2006 study found that rural Honduras and Guatemala have an Internet penetration rate of just 0.2 percent. Riecken libraries offer the only free Internet access in nearly all communities they serve; in some, they are the only connection.

Libraries are built where community involvement ensures their success. Local leaders organize a governing board, find land for the library, win a commitment (usually from municipal governments) to pay librarian salaries and line up donors to cover operating expenses. The Riecken Foundation, in turn, builds the library, provides quality books and computers, trains librarians and library boards and supports intensive programming.

Information access is a powerful tool for rural development, allowing isolated communities to contribute to and benefit from globalization. Free public libraries are a cornerstone for healthy democracies. Allen Andersson brings the two together to transform lives.