Sometimes I feel like just about the last man on earth who uses a public library to check out books. I do this because I love books, and have a tendency to overbuy, and have overflowing shelves - and then some of the books just aren’t good, and I have the damn things. Libraries keep my collecting instinct in check.


But now they are more like computer labs and a place to sleep. I’ve seen several that even offer free meals, and are ‘shelters’ in winter - to get people out of cold weather. They have also installed self check-out stations, but still employ people at a desk to check books out for you - and they’re just hanging out all day. The reference librarians have nothing to do at all so far as I can tell.


Anyway - this is all going to end soon. Cities aren’t going to fund it because no one is using it for what it’s for. I find it a little depressing to watch it decline bit by bit - when these institutions once served as places that could help people in their autodidact adventures to get educations that were otherwise out of reach.