If this is so obvious, how come libraries are so rare in development funding?

The impact of popular literature study on literacy development in EFL: more evidence for the power of reading
Christy Ying Laoa and S. Krashen
System Volume 28, Issue 2, June 2000, Pages 261-270

University level EFL students in Hong Kong who participated in a popular literature class that emphasized reading for content and enjoyment, including some self-selected reading, made superior gains on measures of vocabulary and reading rate, when compared to students enrolled in a traditional academic skills class. Eighty-eight percent of the literature students felt that what they learned from the course would help them in other university courses, but only 12% of the traditional academic skills students had this opinion about their class. These results are consistent with previous studies showing that meaningful reading is an important source of literacy competence.