5 ms·
The libraries here seem to have transitioned heavily to services and tech. The computers have not only internet, but MS Office and Adobe products, and I see ev
by SomeStupidPoint 10y ago
The libraries here seem to have transitioned heavily to services and tech.
The computers have not only internet, but MS Office and Adobe products, and I see everything from playing games and social media to job hunting and learning being done on them. (There's even a special bank of computers with resources for job hunting downtown.)
Pretty much every day, the library holds some kind of starting a business, learning to use tech, ESL, or other kind of class.
Then there's the cultural shows (opera, movies, story readings) and free tax prep services at the central branch downtown.
The library also provides desks to work at, which are used by students (HS and college), professionals, the homeless, etc. The value of a workspace in the city is itself fairly large. I made frequent use of it when working as a freelancer. Cheaper than coworking space, cafe on site, reliable internet, etc.
And of course, the library is still a library. Their ebook collection is nowhere near the size and scope of their physical book collection. Not just the normal stuff of modern books, but fairly large archives of things like financial reports, magazine editions, etc stretching back nearly 100 years (longer in a few cases), a rare book collection, specialty archives, a collection of official government documents, and probably more Im forgetting.
That isn't stuff I need every day, most of my borrowing is (or could be) ebook/audiobook, but I think the city would be poorer without a publicly owned archive of history, even if there were digital copies available. There's something about reading a book older than your great grandparents that digital copies don't replace.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoPeople have a hard time realizing libraries are so much more than books these days. I'm a former library employee, and it was always interesting seeing how the library adapted to interests and needs of the community. My local library now has as big of a movie rental library (for free!) as any Blockbuster back in the day, has 3D printers available for use, and office areas meant for use by startups needing some space to work.
- throwaway6556 10y agoUp to and including becoming a fucking nursery. Complete with crying and singing kids for Christ sake. I get it, nurseries are expensive and you may not have someone to dump the kids to (or money for Netflix). Shouldn't nurseries be subsidised instead?
- germinalphrase 10y agoYea - they probably should be. Discussing the cost of day care with friends it amounts nearly an additional mortgage payment every month.
- eric_the_read 10y agoIn a surprisingly large number of families where one family member earns a lot and the other much less, the cost of daycare can match or even occasionally outstrip the money brought into the family by the lower-wage earner. My wife recently started working at an early learning center, and during the summer, her salary is nearly entirely devoted to paying for the day camp for our school-age kids. If she had wanted to work full-time before they had started school, we'd most likely have been in the red.
- massysett 10y agoThey are. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ
- SomeStupidPoint 10y agoI knew I was forgetting things! The library has an extensive DVD collection (TV, movies, etc), CD collection (music, etc), script collection (plays and other theater), sheet music collection, music practice rooms, and of course, a foreign language collection for all the kinds of media. Oh! And a collection of maps, covering both a large geographic area and over time so you can see the evolution of local cities. (Actually, 3 map collections -- US government Dept of Interior/USGS, other broad scale ones, and then a special collection for local ones.) Im pretty sure I'm still forgetting things. The library system is actually kind of awe-inspiring in what they manage to collect and archive. Once you consider their relationships with local university archives, other cities, and county level systems, their total system is staggering. I could never say enough good things about the library, and it's one of the best civic investments we make because it does so many things at once.
- stinkytaco 10y agoThe physical space is a big one, I think. There are many ways a library could be "replaced": Wikipedia, content piracy, cheaper home Internet and so on. But simply having a physical place is something Google cannot give you. That's why library architecture is such a huge part of the literature, I think. But based on our numbers and the community research we've done over the years, I think it's still physical materials the drive the bus. People like stuff, real stuff.