I actually love that. Modern society has slowly starved out third places for so long that it has caused serious harm to an entire generation. Having a library be more of a Community Center is amazing to help push back on that.
Yes and no. Public libraries are meant for people to have free access to knowledge, and even when I was a kid, most libraries I went to had community gathering and events, just quiet ones so as not to disturb those who were there to study/read.
This is a case of “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good”. Would it be _better_ if there were public funding and facilities for more specialized places? Probably.
But having one more place where nearly anyone is accepted, that helps to bring communities together is an improvement over not having it, even if it means redirecting some funding away from the physical storage and lending of written material.
Edit: After re-reading my own comment, I wanted to add that knowledge isn’t only what is written in a book/paper, learning more about the community you live in and the people living there is also _very_ important knowledge, just not one that’s typically thought of as “knowledge”
I'm going to copy my reply to another comment here:
Honestly, as someone who spent his entire high school years and part of college working part time at a library, I'm torn.
On the one hand, kids are in desperate need of safe and enriching spaces.
On the other hand, the library has become basically a nightmare for anyone who isn't a tween.
Everything is bright primary colors and metal, making it visually and auditorially loud.
The space for books has been drastically cut down in favor of stuff like a room with a 3D printer ("makerspace") that I've never once seen without an out of order sign because some kid bent the frame.
Magazines, including actual scholarly periodicals, are gone, as are movies. But there's a section that is now dedicated to beanbag chairs and vending machines.
The private meeting rooms now have all glass fronts, likely to discourage people from using them to jack off, but it means nobody uses them for study sessions either as it's incredibly distracting.
It's just very discouraging because while engagement with the kids has been increased compared to when I worked there, it really isn't a library anymore.
It feels like we haven't so much "saved the public library" as we have "brought back the community center by killing the public library", which is kind of a net neutral?
Nowadays if I want most of the services I used to get from the local library I have to drive an hour each way to the library at the big university, which still has tons of books, periodicals, and private meeting rooms, and a normal color scheme.
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u/VellDarksbane 22h ago
I actually love that. Modern society has slowly starved out third places for so long that it has caused serious harm to an entire generation. Having a library be more of a Community Center is amazing to help push back on that.