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i found this article to be very poor. instead of trying to formulate an argument for why libraries should be kept open, it lashes out in some petty political sc

• BrandoElFollito 7y ago
  I do not have hard data on borrowing rates etc. but the two libraries I go to (western suburbs of Paris) are full. Full of older folks, full of children, full of the children's parents. Purple sit to read and borrow impressive stacks of books. There are also plenty of students. They could study at home (taken into account the average population wealth) and yet they come to cluster in sub-optimal conditions. I do not have any concerns for these libraries to dissapear. I do not know how this works for other countries but French consulates often hold a library as well. They mirror this system of "meeting space" for national and francophones. Last time I tried that was on Krakow, Poland and the experience was great.
• nerpderp82 7y ago
  You are wrong, libraries are extremely important and provide access to both books and the internet for many many folks. They are a cultural, social and intellectual nexus. The thinking that libraries are outmoded because we have the web is short sighted. This is article is outlining the destruction of the libraries in the UK by the conservative government, an educated and engaged population is a cure for the right. This is the same reason we have a war on education in the US, to make more right wing voters. > Because nobody has worked as doggedly to this end, as unsentimentally, and with a greater commitment to the suppression of literacy, than our own Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
  • daemonk 7y ago
    I think he was referring specifically to their traditional function as a repository of information. I think in that regard, libraries are outmoded. Of course they have been and can be transformed to perform other important community functions.
    • nerpderp82 7y ago
      To see them only as a repository is a very narrow literalist view. They have always had other uses than "just storing books".
    • justin66 7y ago
      > I think he was referring specifically to their traditional function as a repository of information. I think in that regard, libraries are outmoded. It's like people have never heard of e-books.
    • yborg 7y ago
      They are not outmoded for this function, which is the function of a repository of information free to all citizens. They are critical for it, and they are giving up on it, by and large, thanks to the current generation of professional librarians. What is described in the article is also happening in the US, and over the last 15 years the public library has largely ceased to be a repository for information or even a kiosk to access information, which would be it's primary modern function. It has become a place to deliver entertainment, and even more importantly to warehouse children of working parents and in some areas, homeless people. These are perhaps useful and important functions, but not a primary rationale for a library. But in order to perform these functions, the libraries have eliminated ... the books. And I don't just mean the physical books, and most of the suburban libraries around here have eliminated by my estimate at least half of their physical collections, both in books and media, largely to open floor space for lounge areas. These books in many cases are now just gone. They aren't available to read digitally either - because libraries are largely outsourcing the whole 'content' thing to for-profit companies that essentially lease books for access by libraries at ridiculous prices. And you'll get what they consider profitable, which is largely content that is ... entertainment. One of the great functions of the "old" library was access to out-of-print material. This is now largely gone, and because it is out of print, you won't find it in digital distribution, either. And obscure or unpopular material that formerly could be found in a library you now must buy, at a high price because of low individual interest. I believe that the public library was one of the great democratic institutions in the US, not just because it afforded access to information, but as a place where everyone, rich and poor, would go and have the same right to borrow a book. The only sliver of hope I see here is that most libraries still seem to have large children's sections and it warms my heart to see parents still taking little ones to the library. It's one of the small rituals that help to produce a civil society and one that I fear will eventually be privatized as well.
• justin66 7y ago
  > the digital disenfranchised have the same issue as the people who couldn't read and write back when libraries were one of the main the sources of knowledge. When libraries in the United States received their first really big financial boost, with lots of money from the likes of Andrew Carnegie, part of the services they offered were instruction in reading and writing for borrowers who might not even speak English. A library today might - depending on where it is and how well funded it is, or how well funded its community's social services are - provide or coordinate instruction in English as a second language, GED, basic job training, remedial Adult learning, computer use, or a ton of other things. These are important tasks that need to be performed by humans, not "the internet." > this is backed up by extremely reduced numbers of borrowers I'm biased by living in an area with a well funded library system (a few, actually) with what are probably per-capita the largest number of borrowers of any libraries in the world. I wonder if maybe your comments are informed by never having lived in a place with a really good library, or by never needing what your library had to offer. > the benefits of the internet massively outweigh any nostalgic dreams about libraries. This is a weird false dichotomy. In an era where books in print and physical media are of reduced importance, libraries are lending e-books and music... on the internet. The draw to the physical library space is still a strong one, even for a worshiper of "the internet," since libraries are offering use of tools like 3d printers and laser cutters and other tools, as well as training on their use.