At 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 librar

At 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.