Do you know how difficult this bottom line vision of libraries is to combat? The people who can afford Amazon don’t need libraries like the people who can’t afford amazon do. Maybe the library isn’t for you. I would beg to differ but let’s go with it. Not everything is about you. The people who need and use libraries won’t just get on without them. We have internet access. We have job help. We connect people to social services. We are a safe, free space to spend time. We are the only place in town that doesn’t want your wallet. We have an insane business model. We give you stuff with your word that you will bring it back on the due date. Does any other place give you stuff on loan like that? Not the car dealership that’s for sure. But we can do that because WE ARE NOT A BUSINESS. we are a public good. We are like roads and schools—we are for everyone even if you don’t use them all the time—which they want to privatize too. Fight for roads. Fight for schools. Fight for libraries.
Libraries are a public good.
We are in danger of losing sight of this category entirely. We could lose the concept of “a public good.”
It could cease to exist.
Do not let it.
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