As someone living far off in India with a really small number of libraries and even smaller number of updated books - this is a fascinating read.
Besides covid, do people frequent libraries even today?
Besides covid, do people frequent libraries even today?
It probably differs by community and country but in Ireland at least I can say that public libraries are quite busy and provide a popular service.
Some recent stats for Ireland: https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/7468fd-public-libra...
And a look at the international picture: https://librarymap.ifla.org/
Nosing into a book in a quiet corner of a grand city building is not quite the same as rifling through the daily papers in a brightly lit communal area of a dilapidated town centre building with the local bored/lonely/bookish. Each have their different pleasures and vibe.
Then there are the researchers, official or otherwise - e.g. see the teeming hordes in the British Library in London bagging their daily laptop spot.
As more and more gets digitised (which modern libraries are fundamentally core to and involved with) and the physical environments (formerly the intellect-grooming dens of the working-class) are seen as an irrelevance to be defunded - or merged with communal zumba classes and the like - with librarians replaced by floorwalkers and customer service we may see them decline, but it will be a sad day when there are none left.
To me it's like a community center with books, rather than a library.