A Critique of Public Libraries

In a recent article in the New York Review of Books the author notes:

Years ago, I lived in a remote mountain town that had never had a public library. The town was one of the largest in New York State by area but small in population, with a couple thousand residents spread out over about two hundred square miles. By the time my husband and I moved there, the town had lost most of its economic base—in the nineteenth century it had supported a number of tanneries and mills—and our neighbors were mainly employed seasonally, if at all. When the regional library system’s bookmobile was taken out of service, the town had no easy access to books. The town board proposed a small tax increase to fund a library, something on the order of ten dollars per household. It was soundly defeated. The dominant sentiments seemed to be “leave well enough alone” and “who needs books?” Then there was the man who declared that “libraries are communist.”

 In contrast, I grew up in New York City where there were a lot of libraries and generally filled with useless stacks of books selected by librarians who seemed to think less of the taxpayers and more of their own view of the world. Try and get a math book, a science book, and the list goes on. If one likes fiction then you were happy.

Also, yes be quiet, at best you got the book for two weeks. You could not teach yourself calculus in two weeks, no less learn Russian.

The haven was the used book stores. Once you found a good one then for a dollar or so you could own a book. It was yours, it did not have to go back, you could read it at your own pace, mark it up, digest its contents. The hell with novels, you had something that you could build on in the real world. You could learn chemistry, learn how to design a bridge, and learn about those fellows Watson and Crick.

Why are used book stores great? Simple, for two reasons. First at some time a real person paid real money to buy a book that they thought was worthwhile.  Second, a bookseller then paid real money for a book that they thought was worthwhile. The first purchase was a real customer, and the second a real market maker. None were librarians, all had some economic calculus afoot. Librarians on the other hand often have some socio-political set of reasons and they want to spread then to their captive audience.

You could not have access to the best scientific journals in libraries but you could get a subscription to Scientific American, in the days when it had some worthwhile content, not like today, where it is filled with junk.

You also started what would become a library. Then if you went to Barnes and Nobel to their section on Dover books, for about $1.50 you could get paperback copies of great books, pushing the edge of the envelope.

Thus why go to any library when the real stuff was outside. Today in New Jersey the Libraries are guaranteed substantial funds from the Real Estate taxes. But try and get anything useful from them. At best they are a Starbucks without coffee and food.

Is there a place for Public Libraries today? As a taxpayer subsidized social club perhaps, if that is what one seeks. But as a source of information, hardly.

Stay with the used books stores and that new thing called the "Internet" I think.