The usefulness of the number depends on your perspective (some would say agenda) If you want to build a library and some official tells you the place would be

The usefulness of the number depends on your perspective (some would say agenda) If you want to build a library and some official tells you the place would be better used for a movie theater, you have a reference number to argue. Some people are positing with a straight face that libraries are a thing of the past and the ROI is low now that we have amazon. Explaining libraries are useful is actually not trivial, especially as they don’t directly make money. Slightly off topic, but equating library with “reading” is not in line with today’s libraries, which represent a lot more than a place to borrow old books.