Local Library Would Like to Remind Everyone Its Shit Is Free

In my local area (a suburb of Washington D.C.), I have 2 brand new libraries about 5-10 minutes from my house, with another one planned within walking distance. At both the extant libraries, book loaning is just part of the services offered by the library.

For example, on any given day you can go in after school and the libraries will be packed to the gills with students using them as after school study centers -- with private group study rooms and the like. Private tutors often meet with their students in the library as well instead of people's houses as it lets them have a centralized place where they can see 3 or 4 students in a row with high efficiency.

They also offer a pretty full schedule of community events, for example one of my county libraries has regular meet-ups for parents of autistic kids. The kids get together and play videogames and the parents meet with a special educator.

I've also attended talks by authors of niche books that would never get a chance in a major book chain. One of the best I recall was a talk by a retired player about his days as a professional baseball player in the Negro Leagues.

Libraries are more than just a cheap alternative to a book store, they're major community centers dedicated to learning in general.

I'd happily pay $10 a book loaned to keep them around.

However, the problem with espousing this solution for every individual subject is that the amount of success is highly correlated to how much it means cutting public services (the purported reason for taxes) versus actually defunding the bureaucracy. Libraries and road maintenance are easily gutted while city administration and police push back hard to keep their pockets lined.

So you're still being extorted for a similar amount but receiving much less in return. Eventually, people cry uncle and vote for higher taxes to bring back services and the cycle repeats. And this is at the local level where there's some sliver of accountability, possibility of moving, and taxes are relatively low! So let's just save the discussion of whether libraries are a worthwhile public service until that military-surveillance cancer is well in remission.

As others have noted, libraries are bustling. Tons of people that cannot afford their own internet/computer, study groups, people that don't know how to search for information at the reference desk, free classes on computer use, resume writing, job seeking, after hour programs for school kids, study groups, SAT prep, story hour, readings from local authors, sometimes film, book reading groups, it goes on and on.

I tend to avail myself of their electronic catalog more than the physical catalog, though there are just countless books which are not electronic yet. And, they are great for more ephemeral needs. Grab a couple travel books for you next vacation, for example, or a book on home wiring when you need to do a one time repair.

Libraries are one of the few ways our Government really invests in knowledge beyond school age, and I for one would miss it terribly, as would a huge number of people in my community, given how full it always is and how hard it is to find a table, or how long the wait list is for a book I want to read.

http://www.washoecounty.us/library/libraries.html