Maybe it's hard to justify studying the positive affects of libraries (and third spaces generally) within a community to a non-library inclined audience.

Anecdote: While chronically underfunded to a overwhelming degree, local libraries and their staff in my area have consistently stepped up to the plate by trying to support the communities. Most notably when schools around here stopped offering any sort of afterschool/enrichment programing internally for kids, the libraries basically just added to their model.