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Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

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Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#141

Post by mixmastamyk »

SolaceQuantum wrote: post #134
stillsut wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me give you a hypothetical company IT department: while you are allowed to work there with any education background, only an MBA can be a manager. How do you think they would perform at IT tasks? Who runs libraries? People with Masters in Library Science. I expect severe budget and certification crises would come to any library that won't put a certified librarian in a head position. Or, I'm a working class guy a…

Every library I've been to in every town I've been to had Sunday hours. This includes New York City and its surrounding suburbs, Buffalo and its surrounding suburbs, several towns in Conneticut and several more in Toronto Canada and its surrounding suburbs. Even my university library has sunday hours.

In LA only the central library is open Sunday, for 4 or 5 hours.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#142

Post by jamesred »

The problem libraries solved, mostly access to information, has largely been monopolize by the internet. Most, including the third world impoverished, have access to the internet. Therefore the necessity of a library has been largely diminished and inevitably libraries will disappear. Complaining about libraries when people have no sanitation and access to clean tap water sounds largely like a first world problem, as much as I dislike the term.

Libraries should evolve with the change of technology and move their function from curation and access to information to something that is able to benefit more people. Books occupy volume and removing them would make more room for desks and rooms where people with no access to quiet areas could use to be more productive.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#143

Post by MrZongle2 »

I think public libraries would be a wonderful beneficiary of Jeff Bezos' fortune, but I would hope that in the (admittedly unlikely) event that it happens, the bulk of the donated funds are not thrown at shiny "library of the future" initiatives. Not after-school STEM programs, not summer Minecraft redstone programming camps, not 3D printer labs.

Just books, staff and facilities: the three things that libraries always need, won't become obsolete in a few years, and are equally available to all patrons in an area.

Yes, public libraries need to evolve to meet their community's needs as they change. But just as a new coat of paint or solar-powered lighting doesn't strengthen an aging bridge, focusing on the flair rather than the core of what makes a library a library would be foolhardy.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#144

Post by cko »

lebanon_tn wrote: post #120
cko wrote: post #109

Whenever a topic like this gets posted, it feels like the majority of commenters feel 'entitled' to other people's money and think they know best how to spend it. Or the notion they have to 'give back.' I'm not rich in the popular sense of the word (besides having the fortune of being American middle class), but I do have investments by virtue of almost never spending on consumer goods. And having no wife or kids. My…

You're missing the point. Bezos specifically tweeted requesting ideas for philanthropy. No one is saying he can't spend the money how he wants.

True.

I guess out of quite a bit of other threads, I jumped on this particular thread in order to vent, which wasn't the best choice, since, as the article said (and you emphasized) that he was requesting ideas. Or maybe the word "should" always upsets me, and I envision a world where us common people are walking around believing that the more fortunate owe us just because they are wealthy.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#146

Post by cko »

drdrey wrote: post #129
cko wrote: post #109

Whenever a topic like this gets posted, it feels like the majority of commenters feel 'entitled' to other people's money and think they know best how to spend it. Or the notion they have to 'give back.' I'm not rich in the popular sense of the word (besides having the fortune of being American middle class), but I do have investments by virtue of almost never spending on consumer goods. And having no wife or kids. My…

Did you read the story? He made a public request for ideas about his philanthropy strategy

Admittedly, I made the cardinal sin of reading title only, the jumping to the HN comments and replying. I'm surprised I haven't been downvoted into oblivion.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#147

Post by MrZongle2 »

bitL wrote: post #136
kazinator wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... with all books that were ever written. All that and an electronic girlfriend application to replace the real one you could have picked up at the library.

Come on, book is just a medium, now we have a different form already, why put money into old-school stuff? For nostalgia reasons?

A book certainly is just a medium, but it's a particularly accessible and durable medium.

If you place a 50-year-old book written in English in front of me, I can immediately pick it up and begin reading. Books far older than that are equally as legible and, with care, accessible.

What are the chances that in 50 years that even half of the current ebook formats will be viewable by contemporary technology?

This isn't to say that other formats shouldn't be used or improved, but we have yet to see a medium that is as unfettered and easily used. It's hardly about nostalgia.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#148

Post by 0x4f3759df »

ahoy wrote: post #124
bitL wrote: post #101

What's the point of libraries these days? We literally have the possibility for everyone to have a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in their pocket with all books that were ever written.

As other users said above, libraries are a huge deal in poor communities. People use them to search for jobs/fill out job applications. These are tasks that are onerous to impossible on a low-end smartphone, if you have one at all. I live in a gentrifying area of NYC. There's a public library branch a few blocks away from me that sees lots of visitors every day. I rarely walk by it and don't see people coming and goi…

If these people are there for the space and the Internet, and not the books, that seems like an argument for a new type of institution that has a lot of computers, rather than an argument for libraries.

Re: Bezos should put his billions in public libraries

#150

Post by MrZongle2 »

soperj wrote: post #67
oconnor663 wrote: post #59

> they're the only noncommercial places other than city squares where people meet across genders and ages Church?

The Church has billions in assets... it's commercial.

I'd say that depends on the church (lower-case "c") and its affiliations. That particularly wealthy religious organizations exist in Rome and Salt Lake City (for instance) doesn't mean a typical small-town church can't struggle to pay its bills.
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