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Comment by AuthorizedCust | Hacker News Reader

Who cares? Libraries are already in a death spiral. Circulation is way down and still plummeting, and there’s no realistic future that changes that.

The traditional function of librarians and libraries has been obsoleted by technology for common use cases.

Look at what your local library does now, and you’ll find far much more than ever has nothing to do with physical books or even books at all!

The future of libraries is a ground-up reinvention of their purpose.

Also, no matter your concern about tech, warehousing physical books and providing staff to help us organize books and locate information isn’t the answer.

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> Look at what your local library does now, and you’ll find far much more than ever has nothing to do with physical books or even books at all!

And they're better for it too. My local library has a makerspace in the basement, with 3D printers, multiple sound studios, computers with Adobe suite (and other things) on them, embroidery machine, sublimation printer, and soon to get a Glowforge laser cutter. It's great.

And I have another friend in charge of library events for young adults (20s/30s). She hosts geek movie nights, board/video game nights, "how to adult" sessions (like buying your first home, money management, etc), craft nights, adult coloring, open mic nights, trivia nights, cookie decorating, karaoke, "art therapy" nights (actually one of the more popular ones), etc.

If you're not in the habit of checking the events and facilities at your local library as you assume it's all book related, give it a try. It might not be anymore.

So you don't support libraries either. You support something entirely different which you are calling a "library"

I still support libraries. I check out books from them periodically (and I do not support book publishers in what they're doing in the linked article).

I just also like the additional roles they've taken on and would like to spread awareness so more people check out their local libraries (and possibly also check out books while they do so).

A few other things I've done at my local library include foreign language conversation sessions, tutoring an ESL student (that was only a couple of times, pandemic started soon after), attending various lectures, early voting, renewing my driver's registration and sticker, and with my local writing group we've done many write-ins and also periodically had readings of Shakespeare plays using one of their meeting rooms (with some light acting and dueling with foam swords).

Also when my previous company closed their office space (before the pandemic), we used to sometimes meet at a meeting room at a library to conduct work meetings. We stopped doing that when the pandemic started.

It's almost like the model, that was outdated, was updated and the concept of library has appropriately changed?

Words and concepts are not static; they can and do change often?

The purpose of a library isn't (only) to store books. It's to distribute knowledge.

I care. A lot.

If libraries didn't exist today or were removed even for an instant can you imagine someone arguing for their creation?

"I want to make a public space where people can go and take home media. All for free. Paid for by the government."

They would be laughed out of the room.

Libraries are the last remnant of a past society where people's needs were considered more important than corporate needs.

That wasn't the origin of libraries, though, at least in the US. The first libraries were private. Think of the Carnegie libraries, for instance. (I know, they weren't the first...)

As a poor child I read thousands of books from libraries to make my life bearable. If we reinvent libraries without providing the same facilities for a new generation it'll be a sad regression for humanity.

This is an exaggeration. Paper book lending has declined gradually over the last decade. Overall use of book collections (paper + electronic) is way up. [0]

[0]: https://wordsrated.com/state-of-us-public-libraries/

> The traditional function of librarians and libraries

The traditional function of librarians and libraries remains to collect and disseminate knowledge.

The amount of critical knowledge disseminated in a society is critical to determine its quality, so there are the fullest grounds to propose the strict opposite of a «Who cares».

An assessment for reform can be proposed, but the problem is not solved with the current snapshot of technology use.

I suppose it really depends on where you live. In my little corner of the world, the library parking lot has near constant traffic ( which gets worse towards the evening ). It is likely nearby school is part of the reason, but this library also has activities, 3d printing, pc classes and so on. It is a small little knowledge hub I used to equate with a university setting. If library near you is dying, it is an issue, but it is not nearly as widespread as you may think.

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