These library closures. When was the last time you visited one?
We don't really need them in this day and age, do we? People can download the classics on their iPad/Kindle or go and buy won from a charity shop
As sad as it is, surely they've had their day?
There is more to a library than borrowing fiction.
Books, CDs, kids corners,...what else?
I used them all the time when I was working from home
they are about more than borrowing books and the four I would go into (Archway, Highgate, Kentish Town and occasionally Camden were always busy). Particularly useful for older people to get access to the internet. I also borrowed the odd book or two as I had more than enough clogging up my flat - unlike a Kindle, books don't tend to break when you accidentally hit them with your knee on a coach
Historical documents, local history, maps, public information, access to the internet
for people who don't normally have it.
That's not really the point, I think. The state is apparently also supposed to
support such things as a means of showing what it (we) believe in.
And given we have a high and rising level of child poverty in this country...
...it is access to books and information for those who would otherwise go without. Libraries also provide useful children services and information for those who might not otherwise have it. More to the point, not everyone has an ipad, kindle or internet for that matter. It's very easy when one lives a charmed middle class life to imagine everyone is the same. Technology is not equally distributed, like everything else...
I must admit, I'm surprised at how many people on here have used one recently
As more historical maps and books are scanned in and made available online, and when most people have internet in their homes, I just don't see a need to store multiple copies of books in multiple buildings
Quite right. Poverty shall not deny the right of all children to look up
rude words in very large dictionairies.
Hahaha if my childhood is anything to go by, you are right!
Or even to find out that 'innit' and 'bruv' are not in fact real words!
So people retreat behind closed doors ... sad scenes imo
Well, one could argue that the original document has significance....
...we could reproduce major works of art on large screens for example. Would that be agreeable in the digital age?
Absolutely. New technology also has social consequences...
All students, they just access awimb at lunch in the library imo
