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I visited Vancouver's public library last year. The library offers wifi, internet computers, professional computers exclusively for stuff like Photoshop, record

I visited Vancouver's public library last year. The library offers wifi, internet computers, professional computers exclusively for stuff like Photoshop, recording booths, musical instruments, organizes weekly events and, of course, books. If all you have is this library and time, you could pick up an instrument, learn how to play it, record a weekly podcast/vlog with your progress, edit the video, upload it to Youtube, and design your own artwork. Don't know how to do one of these things? Go pick up a book on it. You can launch an entire career for almost nothing. I'd like to see Amazon do that. I bring this specific case because, to me, it's an example of all a public library can be when we consider them a public service rather than a burden.

sixdimensional 8y ago
Yes, this is exactly how I feel. Libraries and the services they offer can be an instrument for people to bring themselves out of poverty and for people to be able to grow and advance through education. I personally think of it like this - if I didn't have a job, where would I "go to work every day"? If I didn't have an income, and I couldn't get a job, I could go to a library. And a library could be the key to me finding a job, or work, or making it for myself. A library is a positive place to go with something to do, when otherwise, maybe I would have nothing, which can help me. My personal desire is not to disrupt libraries, but instead the opposite - to actually extend what they do until it gives even more people a chance to start their own business, find their own careers, or simply learn and educate themselves for work or pleasure. Lest we forget, that library science is the foundation of information science!