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Comparing a city library with an extremely specialized institution which holds a Gutenberg bible or a Shakespeare first folio is ridiculous. These are separate
by sgift 8y ago
Comparing a city library with an extremely specialized institution which holds a Gutenberg bible or a Shakespeare first folio is ridiculous. These are separate institutions which only share the name library.
- JohnBooty 8y agoYeah that's kind of the problem with this entire discussion. People are discussing entirely different sorts of libraries.
- eponeponepon 8y agoWell, no. People are trying to draw a functional distinction between two types of libraries that isn't really there. First, old-fashioned academic libraries existed; later, public lending libraries existed, but only because various people noticed that the existence of academic libraries was a good thing thing that should be more widely accessible to people outside academia and/or religious institutions. At no point has the purpose of public lending libraries been to provide the community centre and entertainment resource that some people want them to be.
- thom 8y agoExcept for now.
- FiveSquared 8y agoThen simple; children areas and soundproofed adult study areas and business areas with a coffee shop to make money ;)
- JohnBooty 8y agoAt no point has the purpose of public lending libraries been to provide the community centre I'm in my 40s and here in the United States, in my lifetime libraries have always doubled as community spaces: hosting events like readings, book clubs, art classes, and so on. Of course, they have not traditionally been free-use community spaces in the sense of "hey, come to the library and drop your kids off so they can run around and play" or anything like that. But I don't think anybody's asking for that, either. Judging by your spelling of "centre," perhaps you're not in the U.S. and therefore have a different experience and perspective.