Resonating with the Live 8 concerts, as well as the protests in Edinburg calling on the members of the G8 Summit to fight hunger, a major conference of information services professionals has concluded that libraries and librarians are an essential component to the campaign to end poverty. A report from CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, concluded that “library and information services are vital in every country if the Make Poverty History campaign is to succeed.” The biennial Umbrella conference, held in Manchester, issued a resolution saying “library and information services underpin information, literacy and the learning process,” and “literacy and learning underpin all our aspirations, locally and globally, for ourselves, our communities and our economies including equality, social justice and the eradication of poverty.” Says CILIP president Debby Shorley, “If governments are serious about empowering countries to eradicate poverty, they must recognise the need for library and information services that are as effective as those we in the developed world take for granted.”