I’m over 21, far under 85, a voracious reader, particularly for fiction, and couldn’t afford to buy all the books I check out of the library. Or even a few of them.

Also, I’m somewhat annoyed by your implication that fiction is not ‘worthy’ of library storage. The gov’t doesn’t subsidize Netflix because it’s a business. However, libraries are MEANT to be places where information— of all kinds, regardless to fictionality, content, type— can be shared freely (with limits, that is to say due dates). To repeat that, libraries are not businesses; they promote the free exchange of information.

And information wants to be free. (Preferably in a way that won’t have people arguing over piracy)

That said, libraries are becoming increasingly redundant.  They are having trouble keeping up with the rapid changes in tech, though many librarians will deny this, claiming they are “leading the change”.  Some yeah, but most, nope.  

Yes, there are mindless books and deep movies in the world. I’ve seen and read plenty of both. Still, all but the most vapid books *force* you to think in a way that movies just don’t. Movies don’t just replace descriptive text with images and sounds, they also subtract the majority of characters’ thoughts and introspection, author tangents, and other thought-provoking asides. Do you know what books first convinced me to start reading philosophy? R.A. Salvatore’s forgotten realms novels. Sci fi and Fantasy in general can be very good at making readers think more philosophically- the genre are made for big ideas.

It was A Wrinkle in Time that showed me how much fun science and math and be. That’s when I started looking through the library for non-fiction like Stephen Hawking’s Universe, anything by Carl Sagan, any anything by Robert and Ellen Kaplan.

I later ended up buying many of these books, or when not, at least the rest of those writers’ books (take note, RIAA and MPAA). But that wouldn’t have happened without the library being there first.

For proper reference I’d just head to my local University library, as it’s got 20x the books in it anyway and I can become a member without being a student for a very low fee. But I appreciate that not everyone is near a University.

But at the same time I’d agree that I don’t resent the cost, there is a list as long as my arm of things that I’d scrap (or reduce) to save money before I touched libraries.

As I say though, it’s an internal debate, I see both sides.

One year’s change in the amount of money received by a single author from the library system does not say anything useful about the state of libraries, any more than the change in the ratio of long- vs short-sleeved T-shirts in your wardrobe over the past year tells us something meaningful about climate change.

I definitely can’t speak for any library systems outside my own (I know many across the US are struggling, ravaged by the Economy dragon), but we’ve managed to do pretty well at attracting a new generation of patrons. We recently opened our new headquarters library (about twice the size of the old one).

I wish I had exact numbers, but it appears that our usage has tripled since opening the new library. We’ve attempted to bring in new patrons by changing the direction of the traditional library (which many libraries are doing now, I think), adding access to more technology, classes, etc. We are one of those libraries with a cafe, like NickPheas’ (though we do have a bunch of Charles Stross books). I work out of the Teen Center, where we’ve provided our young adults in the area with access to video games (since not all of our patronage is in the income bracket to afford most games, if any), books, as well as things like digital video cameras they can check out of the library.

In any case, blahblah, I don’t mean to play up our system–I don’t think we’re as innovative as we should be yet–but “innovation” seems like the key. When we introduced the video games, our tween and teen attendance went up, which resulted in more of our books being checked out (I push the “Steampunk!” anthology on every kid I can). Other libraries, some of which Boing Boing has covered before, are doing awesome things, such as the Toronto Public Library building that “collection” of interesting people, or the OWS library. MAKE Magazine also had that great article on ideas for libraries in the US, http://blog.makezine.com/2011/03/10/is-it-time-to-rebuild-retool-public-libraries-and-make-techshops/ — I’m not sure if Boing Boing mentioned it yet. My old public library on Long Island, in Port Jefferson, doesn’t charge late fines for most of their materials now.

I know that some people love their traditional library, but the world moves forward–the kind of stuff MAKE explores and the Toronto Public Library is doing are the kind of innovations we need. The elimination of fines, too, makes sense, if only from a standpoint of promoting intellectual development.

Anyway, thanks for your time, sorry for rambling on. Long-Time-Boing Boing-Reader,-First Time-Anxious-Poster (LTBBRFTAP).

Unless of course you’re not referring to reference libraries and instead entertainment libraries – in which case I’ve always had internal debates over the value of tax payer funded fiction rental services. I often find it difficult to separate the importance of saving a library in this context to saving Blockbuster. People that are gonna read, are gonna read. Those that aren’t, aren’t. Libraries don’t turn philistines into well read intellectuals. The only people I know that check fiction in and out of libraries tend to be either over 85 or book addicts that would otherwise be buying the titles anyway. In this context a book is just an entertainment medium, no different from a DVD. The government doesn’t subsidise my netflix subscription, so why should they subsidise libraries? I love books, but I don’t consider the written word any more consequential from an entertainment perspective than film, which can be just as rich and capable of broadening the mind.

Incidentally I’m all for the people; the principle of libraries is very important; I just believe that the reality doesn’t coincide with the ideology; at least from what I’ve seen in the UK. It’s an outmoded concept that people seem to hang on to as much for nostalgia as any logical reason.

P.S. My partner (personal, not professional) disagrees with me entirely, so feel free to pitch an argument against my hypothesis, I’m very much used to it – I just haven’t heard an argument based on anything other than ‘Libraries are important, because!’.

I know that they are financed via local gov and seen as easy targets for cuts in their budgets but it all plays back into Ben Goldacre’s theory of economic growth:

What do politicians think drives UK economic output, if not an educated workforce? Our empire? Our imaginary gold mines? 

https://twitter.com/#!/bengoldacre/status/12952805031546880 

I haven’t been into a library in a very long time but I still read a fair amount (I think I read around 25-30 books in the last year give or take).