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You invented a library. This is what a library is. Visit your local library.
by kinos 8y ago
You invented a library.
This is what a library is.
Visit your local library.
- philwelch 8y agoCan I have a library that kicks out homeless junkies?
- lghh 8y agoNo, because the library is just as much for them as it is for you. The best way to remove "homeless junkies" from your community is to help house and rehabilitate them.
- stale2002 8y agoOk, well then don't be surprised when we don't use the library, and instead use a cleaner, better comercial space.
- philwelch 8y agoYou can’t rehabitate someone who doesn’t want to rehabilitate himself. The simple but politically incorrect fact is that the presence of these people makes public spaces dirtier, less inviting, and less safe for the rest of us. Saying the public library is just as much for me as it is for Fenatyl Joe is like saying the underside of the interstate is just as much for me as it is for Fenatyl Joe. Small town libraries are lovely. Urban libraries in places that don’t have an uncontrolled vagrancy epidemic are probably fine, too. In cities like Seattle and SF, exclusive, commercial spaces are significantly more inviting than public spaces.
- shervinafshar 8y agoLibraries are public safe space. Get over it.
- 0x6A 8y agoSafe for who? I'm friends with a number of librarians in my city, and every single one of them has been verbally harassed by patrons and more than half of them have been physically assaulted. It's not always by people with mental health issues but unfortunately it usually is. (Nannies are particularly nasty when it comes to verbal abuse, I'm told. Sometimes they get barred for a while, usually they don't.) Homelessness and mental illness are real, hard problems that have been rehashed to death here and elsewhere and I'm not even going to pretend to suggest that I have an answer. But I do know that the answer is not "Hope your MLS degree prepared you to deal with a guy literally taking s shit on the circulation desk while screaming at you for being a godless cunt dyke whore." Guess what? An MLS degree does not train you to deal with that. Librarians are not professional mental health care providers or social workers. Dumping your city's homeless population on them because you are unable and unwilling to deal with the problem and saying "get over it" is irresponsible both to the librarians and the communities that they serve.
- busterarm 8y agoI spent a lot of time in libraries as a kid and there was more than one pedophile in my local branch trying to groom me...even some who followed me home to know where I lived. I didn't realize the seriousness of the situation until I was older, but I was definitely in an extremely unsafe situation. That's not a situation that we should be accepting of, just because the library should be for everyone. If can't be a public safe space if it isn't _safe_.
- busterarm 8y agoand pedos.
- mywittyname 8y agoMy local libraries don't have cafes. And my local coffee shops don't have good reading material.
- kinos 8y agoBorrow a book and take it to the coffee shop. Or request a coffee shop be put in your library. Or bring some coffee with you.
- dragontamer 8y agoI've been to libraries with cafes in them. Alternatively, I've also been to urban libraries where cafes were within walking distance of the library. Less than a block even, closer than a bus stop.
- fencepost 8y agoAsk your library if they've considered a cafe. I suspect that your local library board would be quite happy to have someone interested come to their board meetings, and I guarantee that cafes and other ways to increase patronage our regular topic for anyone involved in libraries.
- stale2002 8y agoCommercial spaces offer a much better experience than libraries. Better hours. Cleaner. Near other amenities.
- kinos 8y agoSeems like something that can be fixed with better funding, better staffing, and more locations.
- war1025 8y agoIn my experience a bookstore has a much more relevant selection of books than the local library.