5 ms·

The public library as a place to get reading material has less and less purpose anymore. When you can just download a book for free, or if you want to pay, hav

The public library as a place to get reading material has less and less purpose anymore. When you can just download a book for free, or if you want to pay, have it shipped from Amazon, what is the point of the library? Between piracy and online ordering, there isn't really much space for libraries as places with books as they offer value only to exceptionally moral poor people. I used to be someone who hit my checkout limit from the library. I haven't been in over a decade now to checkout a book.

chiefalchemist 3y ago
For some ppl $25 a hardcover is expensive. They might also not have the space or want to create the space. I buy books. I underline, etc. But I do know ppl who prefer the library, which is 100x better than not reading at all.
- candiodari 3y ago
  I am like the author. Before 13 I had read the entire computer section, and maybe half of the math and physics sections. Plus the strips section, which was the only part of the library that very regularly got new stuff. I could not pay for those books with my allowance. I could not pay 1% of their price, and frankly it would have been several hundred dollars per month (because ... well, technical book prices). And this with it being a 70 minute bike ride to the library (I mean I just didn't return from school, which meant it was maybe 20 minutes, then returned in the evening). Libraries worked for me until perhaps high school, back then. Now they definitely wouldn't. Now there simply isn't any computer or math section anymore in the library. There's some leftover books but every month there's less. If you can't afford an ipad (ironically the only practical e-reader for zlib imho), you can't read books. Luckily an air will do, but still.
eitally 3y ago
But on the flip side, I went just last week, with my whole family, and we picked out two large shopping bags of books. Libraries are amazing places for children, and their parents. As an aside, I have to also give kudos to my local school district, which has some kind of arrangement with the public library system to give library cards to all elementary students. This not only gives them lending privileges, but also the ability to take advantage of all of the other library system's partnerships and discounts. Libraries are still great, but it probably depends a lot on where you live, and what you expect from one.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

For some ppl $25 a hardcover is expensive. They might also not have the space or want to create the space. I buy books. I underline, etc. But I do know ppl who prefer the library, which is 100x better than not reading at all.

candiodari 3y ago
I am like the author. Before 13 I had read the entire computer section, and maybe half of the math and physics sections. Plus the strips section, which was the only part of the library that very regularly got new stuff. I could not pay for those books with my allowance. I could not pay 1% of their price, and frankly it would have been several hundred dollars per month (because ... well, technical book prices). And this with it being a 70 minute bike ride to the library (I mean I just didn't return from school, which meant it was maybe 20 minutes, then returned in the evening). Libraries worked for me until perhaps high school, back then. Now they definitely wouldn't. Now there simply isn't any computer or math section anymore in the library. There's some leftover books but every month there's less. If you can't afford an ipad (ironically the only practical e-reader for zlib imho), you can't read books. Luckily an air will do, but still.

eitally 3y ago

But on the flip side, I went just last week, with my whole family, and we picked out two large shopping bags of books. Libraries are amazing places for children, and their parents. As an aside, I have to also give kudos to my local school district, which has some kind of arrangement with the public library system to give library cards to all elementary students. This not only gives them lending privileges, but also the ability to take advantage of all of the other library system's partnerships and discounts. Libraries are still great, but it probably depends a lot on where you live, and what you expect from one.