5 ms·

When I was a young child, the library was a place for me to go to sit on a beanbag and read childrens books for hours while my mom studied for her masters degre

When I was a young child, the library was a place for me to go to sit on a beanbag and read childrens books for hours while my mom studied for her masters degree. Now 2/3 of library patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction, and some parents may not wish to leave their children unattended in such an environment. I don't think Amazon has the answers but I see a natural tension between welcoming vagrants and making people with children comfortable.

gbear605 8y ago
Before you propose altering libraries across the country to fix this, check to make sure that this is an issue that libraries across the country face. I suspect that this is an issue in cities, but not at all outside of them.
nicodjimenez 8y ago
Libraries: free internet for winos
howard941 8y ago
It might help if shelters wouldn't throw their charges out at a 7:00 AM
s73v3r_ 8y ago
"Now 2/3 of library patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction," Citation needed.
- jerkstate 8y ago
  It's from the article: > Some two-thirds of my patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction
geebee 8y ago
That was a downside of the angle this article took. It makes the case for libraries on the grounds that they offer a place for addicts and homeless to be safe and sheltered and get basic support in accessing services. That's valuable, but it makes a library sound like a place where social workers deal with poverty and other social ills and field questions about how and where to get help. And while many people would support this, they'd support it in the same way they'd support a homeless shelter or government program to provide assistance for low income immigrants who speak limited English. I really don't want to come off as knocking the value a library adds here, those are worthy contributions. But overall, I think it does give a very limited impression of how libraries are valuable to the community overall. I'm encouraged by the stores people have left about the role the library functions in their own community. I bring my kids to the branch libraries in San Francisco regularly, and I'd like to reassure people that they are generally safe and clean places for kids and other members of the community.
- yontherubicon 8y ago
  I am 100% in favor of public libraries, and I think that the ones we have are too ill stocked, particularly in their classics sections. Necessarily, I am in favor of increasing funding. However, my response to this article was "Let's just get rid of the things." An unsafe library is a useless one.
  - geebee 8y ago
    Yeah... this article defended libraries on the grounds that they are simultaneously a great place for kids to have story time, a safe place for teens, and a place where 2/3s are homeless, struggling with addiction, or recovering from addiction. Now, we don't know the actual breakdown of that 2/3s group, and there certainly are homeless people (including homeless children) who are not addicts and benefit immensely from the public library system. But it's not a great sales pitch to tell people that children's story time will be colocated in an area populated largely by "current and receiving addicts", and people who are 100% in favor of paying for meth addiction treatment centers may reasonably question why we'd store our large and expensive public book collection there. Keep in mind, if libraries feel unsafe (perhaps because they are unsafe), wealthy people will find somewhere else for story time and books, it's the low income populations that will be denied this essential resource. This is partly why, in my previous comment, I wanted to emphasize that many of the branch libraries around SF absolutely do feel safe, and are very welcoming and clean places for kids.
zjaffee 8y ago
When I was growing up in New York (worthy of note since they have far more resources for these things than small towns), the library I attended had partitioned areas for children and families separate from the rest of the library. While this didn't mean adults couldn't go in these areas, it just wasn't set up in a way any adult would rather spend time in compared to other sections. This sort of a problem can certainly be solved. Also I'd add on to the fact that the sorts of people who spend their day in a quiet place like a library, even if they are homeless, are almost certainly harmless. The strong economy has lead to an increase of rent seeking behaviors that have put working class people on the street.

gbear605 8y ago

Before you propose altering libraries across the country to fix this, check to make sure that this is an issue that libraries across the country face. I suspect that this is an issue in cities, but not at all outside of them.

nicodjimenez 8y ago

Libraries: free internet for winos

howard941 8y ago

It might help if shelters wouldn't throw their charges out at a 7:00 AM

s73v3r_ 8y ago

"Now 2/3 of library patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction," Citation needed.

jerkstate 8y ago
It's from the article: > Some two-thirds of my patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction

geebee 8y ago

That was a downside of the angle this article took. It makes the case for libraries on the grounds that they offer a place for addicts and homeless to be safe and sheltered and get basic support in accessing services. That's valuable, but it makes a library sound like a place where social workers deal with poverty and other social ills and field questions about how and where to get help. And while many people would support this, they'd support it in the same way they'd support a homeless shelter or government program to provide assistance for low income immigrants who speak limited English. I really don't want to come off as knocking the value a library adds here, those are worthy contributions. But overall, I think it does give a very limited impression of how libraries are valuable to the community overall. I'm encouraged by the stores people have left about the role the library functions in their own community. I bring my kids to the branch libraries in San Francisco regularly, and I'd like to reassure people that they are generally safe and clean places for kids and other members of the community.

yontherubicon 8y ago
I am 100% in favor of public libraries, and I think that the ones we have are too ill stocked, particularly in their classics sections. Necessarily, I am in favor of increasing funding. However, my response to this article was "Let's just get rid of the things." An unsafe library is a useless one.
- geebee 8y ago
  Yeah... this article defended libraries on the grounds that they are simultaneously a great place for kids to have story time, a safe place for teens, and a place where 2/3s are homeless, struggling with addiction, or recovering from addiction. Now, we don't know the actual breakdown of that 2/3s group, and there certainly are homeless people (including homeless children) who are not addicts and benefit immensely from the public library system. But it's not a great sales pitch to tell people that children's story time will be colocated in an area populated largely by "current and receiving addicts", and people who are 100% in favor of paying for meth addiction treatment centers may reasonably question why we'd store our large and expensive public book collection there. Keep in mind, if libraries feel unsafe (perhaps because they are unsafe), wealthy people will find somewhere else for story time and books, it's the low income populations that will be denied this essential resource. This is partly why, in my previous comment, I wanted to emphasize that many of the branch libraries around SF absolutely do feel safe, and are very welcoming and clean places for kids.

zjaffee 8y ago

When I was growing up in New York (worthy of note since they have far more resources for these things than small towns), the library I attended had partitioned areas for children and families separate from the rest of the library. While this didn't mean adults couldn't go in these areas, it just wasn't set up in a way any adult would rather spend time in compared to other sections. This sort of a problem can certainly be solved. Also I'd add on to the fact that the sorts of people who spend their day in a quiet place like a library, even if they are homeless, are almost certainly harmless. The strong economy has lead to an increase of rent seeking behaviors that have put working class people on the street.