The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
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Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#2If you think libraries are useless, try going to one a few times and talk to the staff about the services they provide. I'd personally say libraries are one of the government organizations with the best return on investment, because education and information are almost invaluable. I'll fight a war over libraries, no joke.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#3"I refuse to accept that everything must be “disrupted” and turned into a moneymaking machine for tech elites. It’s absurd to suggest that Silicon Valley look to profit from one of the few institutions available across the entire country that doesn’t exist to make money for someone else.
"Libraries are irreplaceable. Either discuss providing more funding for the invaluable work we do, or leave them alone."
The Forbes editorial was spectacularly bizarre. Amazon?
Weird that they're taken it down.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#4As a kid prior to this Internet thing, I used to spend hours in the microfiche section reading interesting articles. If I had some money, I'd print a couple to take home and let the toxic chemical smell follow me back when I read them later.
Later on my little community library had cassette music to rent, so I enjoyed Paul Simon, the Manhattan Transfer and Alan Parsons.
The magazine racks had all the back issues of computer magazines I could never find.
I learned so much I would walk there on weekends and just spend an afternoon. I went back there a couple years ago and the microfiche area was now a bank of PCs and I didn't see the music section, but even though such things change, I'm glad my community library is still around for this generation to use. There's no means of discovery quite like browsing racks and finding some interesting journal or book you never knew existed.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#5I'm sick of people going after things they don't use or understand that are valuable to people of lesser means while spewing the efficiencies of the free market.
Amazon only makes as much money as it does because it manages to avoid paying tax while utilizing the infrastructure built and maintained by collecting taxes.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#6When I was a young child, the library was a place for me to go to sit on a beanbag and read childrens books for hours while my mom studied for her masters degree. Now 2/3 of library patrons are homeless or struggling with addiction, and some parents may not wish to leave their children unattended in such an environment. I don't think Amazon has the answers but I see a natural tension between welcoming vagrants and making people with children comfortable.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#7Personally, I cannot fathom finding it preferable, or even acceptable, for Amazon to attempt to displace my local library; Much like bookstores, there's an essential soul to them any corporate invader like Amazon lacks utterly. I have fond memories of summers spent trawling the stacks, afternoons at a table with friends working on homework, DnD sessions in the private meeting rooms, and browsing old stock auctions for the eclectic. Libraries and bookstores are some of the few holdouts of the bibliophile, and remain the best place to get recommendations or spend a quiet evening immersed in a novel - even if Amazon could somehow fulfill each of the numerous services of a modern library, the idea of losing such a wonderful refuge to corporate uniformity is abhorrent.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#8All of the local libraries near me have a 3D printer. One library close by offers a coworkers space I can borrow a Roku and aLaptop. . Libraries don't need distruption they are already doing it themselves.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#9If you think libraries are useless, try going to one a few times and talk to the staff about the services they provide. I'd personally say libraries are one of the government organizations with the best return on investment, because education and information are almost invaluable. I'll fight a war over libraries, no joke.
Last time I read a library-related discussion on HN, one of the sentiments expressed was basically ”I download ebooks, why would anyone need a library?” Boggles the mind. There was also a bizarre comment about libraries being only funded to keep a bunch of otherwise useless civil servants employed.
Re: The last thing libraries need is Silicon Valley “disruption.”
#10If you think libraries are useless, try going to one a few times and talk to the staff about the services they provide. I'd personally say libraries are one of the government organizations with the best return on investment, because education and information are almost invaluable. I'll fight a war over libraries, no joke.
> because education and information are almost invaluable
Citation needed.