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> Books and Libraries have existed long before Edu systems or Youtubers emerged From my position, I am very concerned that people no longer have access to book
by bsder 1y ago
> Books and Libraries have existed long before Edu systems or Youtubers emerged
From my position, I am very concerned that people no longer have access to books and libraries.
Go walk into your local university library and try to get access to a journal article. Good luck.
This is as opposed to when I was a child--I could walk into the local library, pull an actual paper periodical off the shelf and run copies off on the photcopiers--all without so much as an ID. I could get access to the microfiche and take copies as well. If I wanted, I could get a library card to any of the local libraries for free.
If I look at the current situation, I'm extremely worried that a young me of today would have no path to where old me of today sits right now.
- RickJWagner 1y agoThe you of today has access to much more, via the internet and now AI. The problem is sorting the wheat from the chaff, politically biased material, and a framework for methodically learning given the ocean of available information. I hope we solve it.
- bsder 1y ago> The you of today has access to much more, via the internet and now AI. Adult me does. But if I were a poor child today, would I really have access to much more? I'm not convinced. As a better recent example, I was trying to figure out how jeweler's used to historically do threads on screws for watches. I had to run down a copy of "Practical Benchwork for Horologists" and eventually had to buy it, sight unseen since the libraries I had access to couldn't cough it up. For people in the future, apparently there has been a paperback reprint of it. Answering my question about threads: the book devotes a bunch of pages to showing how to build a power feed for your jeweler's lathe.
- more_corn 1y agoThere is a library in every town. There are bookstores in every town. My library has a mobile app. I currently have 5 booked checked out. Bookshop online has cheap books of every kind. Every school in America has a library. Most homes contain dozens if not hundreds of books.