# Do libraries serve a purpose anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 21, 2008, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165 "2008-12-21T05:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/201 "2008-12-31T00:42:05Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > Were it not for local public libraries even a child can use, I’d never have acquired a university-level education, let alone excelled in my studies. This was the case for me as well. Not only was the library a place where you learn how big the world really is, but it can be a refuge from a dysfunctional family. It’s quiet. People don’t argue. And the employees don’t have to fake it that they enjoy your patronage. Just ask a reference librarian about some obscure information you need. He or she will go to the furthest lengths to get it out of her or his own enjoyment. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2008, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/202 "2008-12-31T00:56:22Z")
Not to mention, when I was in college, for my thesis, we were recquired to use first-hand sources-which I could only obtain in my local library archives (and museums, which here in Pittsburgh, are connected with the library-the Carnegie) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2009, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/203 "2009-01-01T18:40:45Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > Just ask a reference librarian about some obscure information you need. He or she will go to the furthest lengths to get it out of her or his own enjoyment. This is true – it’s a kind of perversion we suffer from. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/204 "2009-06-25T04:46:28Z")
What a sad fucking thread. “I don’t like to read. Why should I subsidize people who do?” ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/205 "2009-06-25T06:02:54Z")
We’ll end this thread on a [high note](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/20/us/20ventura.html). ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/206 "2009-06-25T13:57:46Z")
I just checked and I’m working my way up on the reservation list for the DVD of Season 1 of Mad Men - I’m #15 in a list of 48 ☹ - Season 2 will be long over by the time my turn comes. That’s a big problem, reserving movies and such, if they’re new or popular, the library only has a few copies for the whole county. ---
**Author:** ![Brandus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Brandus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/207 "2009-06-25T17:30:59Z")
I would enjoy my local library if it wasn’t full of sleeping homeless people. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/208 "2009-06-25T17:56:41Z")
Think of them as additional seating at no cost to the taxpayer. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/209 "2009-06-25T18:54:25Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > […] Why would you want the job of maintaining historical documents in the hands of a private institution? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2009, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/210 "2009-06-25T23:04:42Z")
It seems that several of the more hostile exchanges in this thread included posters who are no longer here, so I am going to shut this down to avoid having new fights started over old fights. The topic is still open for discussion; it simply requires a separate thread. [/Modding] ---
**Author:** ![Trepa\_Mayfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@Trepa\_Mayfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trepa_Mayfield)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/211 "2009-07-20T07:07:30Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > I already mentioned that but forgot to add that many kids were just playing games. I would put a very stringent limit on that. Maybe set aside a very limited number of computers for games. It makes no sense that people are waiting to use the computers for moe important things while young people are playing games… I suppose the problem with that is that it is not so simple. Many are chatting or doing the facebook thing or whatever so it would have to be more like computers #1 to 3 can be used to play games, chat and everything else; Computers 4 to 10 can be used for everything, chat, etc but not games and computers 11 to 25 cannot be used for games or chat, only serious stuff. I suppose it is not easy to decide what is “serious”. My local library divides up the computers into two sections–one for kids, and one for adults. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/212 "2009-07-20T14:54:03Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Anyone who doesn’t support public libraries has never been truly poor… This. I was trying to come up with a more eloquent and wordy argument, complete with logic, and random Latin stuff, but it all comes back to this. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/213 "2009-07-20T14:54:40Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > It seems that several of the more hostile exchanges in this thread included posters who are no longer here, so I am going to shut this down to avoid having new fights started over old fights. > > The topic is still open for discussion; it simply requires a separate thread. > > [/Modding] Fail. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/214 "2009-07-20T15:41:39Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Books are cheap and plentiful… Plentiful? Sure. Cheap? Not fucking hardly. I recently read _Drood_, by Dan Simmons. It lists for $26.99 retail; that’s the price of a couple of meals for my family, the price of a 24"X48" pre-stretched canvas for my studio, the price of a pair of pants and a shirt for my little boy, or a full tank of gas for my car (or, if the fact that were poor as church mice gets too overwhelming, the price of a bottle of Jamesons). Fortunately, I checked it out from my local library and it cost me nothing out of pocket; a miniscule portion of my taxes —probably not much more than that aforementioned $26.99— covers funding for the library _system_, and the $26.99 I would have spent on this single, gigantic, long-wided but very well written book gets to stay warm and cozy in my wallet to be used for something else and another interested member of the community gets to read _Drood_. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2009, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165/215 "2009-07-21T01:00:58Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Fail. 😃 Interesting. Well, I’ll try it again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-libraries-serve-a-purpose-anymore/478165.md?page=10)