[deanCommie]

Much of what you listed is a consequence of the Internet, which COVID exacerbated. It's unfortunate but society always changes, and this is one of them. It's OK to accept it and allow it to happen. Except one:

> Libraries have to constantly prove their relevancy. My town again had a huge city council fight to fund a new library district - it wasn't pretty.

This I worry is more funded by alt-right anti-intellecutalist culture warriors who are not happy that libraries include books on subjects they don't agree with.

This is worth fighting for. The internet is not a replacement for a library and more importantly librarians.

Not only that but since so much of society is inaccessible without the internet anymore, we need to have public spaces with internet access.

In my head we need to consider libraries on the same level of societal importance as police departments, firehalls, and hospitals. They all must be free and universally accessible or there's no point to the centuries of progress humanity has made. [0]

[0] obligatory edit - police departments ARE overfunded due to illogical unsubstantiated fear-mongering, and because they are forced to do work that they should not be responsible for, specifically challenges of mental health, drug addiction, and poverty. Which end up causing crime, and so the police get asked to fix the symptom rather than the root cause.

[justinator]

>This I worry is more funded by alt-right anti-intellecutalist culture warriors who are not happy that libraries include books on subjects they don't agree with.

It's more that people don't want to pay for libraries and they think libraries will breed a place for homeless people to exist. The town is extremely well educated. There are also many wealthy, entrenched people here that do not want to mingle with poor people. Lot of NiMBYing. The wealth of the town unfortunately does not bread empathy.

[carlosjobim]

The internet shadow libraries are by far the largest and least censored to have ever existed in history. And they are accessible to all instead of just the people living in the exact right spot. They are so much better than any physical library, that it is really beyond any comparison.

A physical library is a nice and comfy environment, usually in a good location as well. But it is not honest to try to argue for them in any way as better than online tools. If the purpose is finding books and information and obtaining it, comparing a physical library to online libraries is like saying it is better to eat using your feet instead of with utensils.

[itishappy]

Internet libraries are accessible to those with access to the internet, which happens to be just one of many services offered by your local library! When my laptop was stolen I accessed the internet exclusively through a local library for about a year. I'd go most days and play League of Legends until they kicked me out. Good times!

> If the purpose is finding books and information and obtaining it, comparing a physical library to online libraries is like saying it is better to eat using your feet instead of with utensils.

There's your issue! Libraries have much broader scope than just physical books. They offer free childcare, classes and meetups, digital lending (also free). If you're struggling to find something on the internet, an actual human is there to help! They can even offer suggestions on books or websites tailored specifically to you, and they won't collect and sell your personal info to do so!

The internet is great, I spend a lot of time here, but libraries are great too!

[carlosjobim]

If you live somewhere without internet access, you aren't living anywhere near a decent physical library. There are many countries in the world that only have one large library, and it's located in the capital. Shadow libraries increases access for people in such a scale that it is beyond comparison. You can get any book you need at any time of the day, without waiting or going anywhere. If I didn't have access to shadow libraries I wouldn't be able to get a hold of the majority of the books I've read in the past years. Not even by paying.

With that fact, I see it difficult to motivate why money should be wasted on physical libraries in any larger extent. You mention other services in the libraries that go strictly beyond the purpose of a library. That's nice when somebody else is forced to pay for it, but I fully understand why politicians want to cut that from a budget. If the government was giving free Harley Davidsson-rides to the public, I'm sure a ton of people would love it as much as many people love the libraries, but it isn't justifiable to spend tax payer money that way.

I also loved sitting in the library and reading a magazine while waiting for the bus, but the money spent on libraries would be much better spent giving every child a Kindle. That gives access to books to so many more people, who would frankly not have been able to have access to them otherwise.

[itishappy]

I had an internet connection at my apartment, I just lacked a smartphone or laptop. (It was actually kinda nice.) I met a surprising number of people in a similar situation.

> You mention other services in the libraries that go strictly beyond the purpose of a library.

Your purpose. Many others use them for different purposes. Growing up, mine had sports fields that were always in use and the best sledding area!

The American Library Association says each library decides it's own purpose.[0] Many, such as the city library near me, are choosing to become community centers attempting to provide a third place. I'd argue this has value the internet cannot replace.

[0] https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicyto...

[carlosjobim]

> I had an internet connection at my apartment, I just lacked a smartphone or laptop.

I think we're talking past each other a little. When I mentioned places without internet coverage, I mean rural places where you just can't get internet. If you live in the city, you can always get online if you really want it, even by borrowing from a friend. Compare that to places outside the big metropolitan cities, where information access was impossible before the internet, because they would at most have a tiny library with little to offer. The internet was an enormous revolution in rural communities, I lived to see it. That was in the 90s, and now the shadow libraries have made physical libraries obsolete.

Shadow libraries and eInk readers have done a thousand times more to give people access to books and information, than all physical libraries combined. That's why I don't think there's any future for physical libraries.

> Your purpose. Many others use them for different purposes.

I think if you ask anybody what a library is for, they'll say for reading and borrowing books. The money being plowed into libraries could be used for subsidizing e-readers and that would give better information access to millions of people, instead of a few thousand of people living in the right place to enjoy good physical libraries.

> The American Library Association says each library decides it's own purpose.

And the politicians deciding the budgets decide if they want to pay for that.

> Many, such as the city library near me, are choosing to become community centers attempting to provide a third place. I'd argue this has value the internet cannot replace.

Completely agree, but they shouldn't really be called libraries by that point.