PSA: Libraries

The services like renting power tools is amazing, or free tickets to museums and stuff.
- I loved the Last Week Tonight segment about it, and not just the taxidermy parts 😁
  
  Hadn't heard of that, thanks, I'll check it out

I've moved around in the last year and literally registered for library cards in two cities earlier this week thinking of this post. Nice to know it's still making the rounds
- literally registered for library cards
  How else does one register if not in a literal sense? #learnOtherAdverbs
  
  I literally registered this last week as opposed to a figurative last week meant to represent the close past.
  #ReadingComprehension

They provide services to ALL people. So tired of reading that only the poor use the library. My kids are always begging to be taken there to get books and do activities. We just used the color printer/copier at ours the other day and the first 3 copies were free. Libraries are an amazing community resource for EVERYONE.
- The three big branches around me have well stocked maker spaces. I see young classes in there all the time.
  Some have seed selections for gardeners. Many assist with tax preparation. I've heard of a few who lend music equipment (think mixers, PAs, synths) for musicians who can't justify going all in getting their own gear.
  Libraries are fucking rad.
- The post clearly says that they also provide services to poor people and just adds it at the very end. I get that you are primed to reading this wrong but in this case it actually isn't wrong...

I use my libary card to download and read free ebooks on my Kobo all the time. Absolutely love it.
- I haven’t paid for an audiobook in years!

The Los Angeles Public Library offers:
Free Museums tickets
Free Zoo tickets (LA city residence only)
Free state park passes
You can borrow laptop, tablet, or even portable a Wi-Fi hotspot
Free education software (Mango and Linkedin Learning)
Free Comics, Music, Magazines, and Movies
Free and cheap 3D printing
Obviously not every library offers all this, but check in with your local branch, and you might be pleasantly surprised.

Prefer to spend your time outdoors? I'm not sure about other states and countries, but in CA your library card can get you free entry to state parks!
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30806
- You have to pay for State Parks in Cali? That's absurd
  
  state parks often do, they are usually on the honor system and require you to put money in an envelope and put it in a drop box
  
  Not if you have a library card! But the fees go to help keep them clean and well maintained, which they need more when they're used more. Of course they also get funding directly from taxes.
  
  Why do you think its absurd?
  
  There are states that don't charge for state parks?
- Our library let's you borrow free passes to different museums and attractions in the area.
- The more I learn about Cali's laws and taxes the less I want to live there, which sucks because the landscape can be so beautiful
  
  One use of the taxes is to preserve the beauty and make it available to everyone except where it's too fragile.
  A lot of the regulations exist to mitigate the evils caused by massive concentrations of humans, like air pollution.
  But hey, you go ahead and stay where you are. That'll keep a place open for another of the many people who move away, experience life in those other states, and then come home again.
  
  Pls keep learning 😛
  Ya room for improvement. Absurdly amazing when everything’s good (you have money near the coast but not near wildfires)
  
  It's weird how you want the beauty, but don't seem to understand how it stays that way.
  It's maintenance. It's user fees to fund maintenance.
  You may think that's socialist, but really it's not. Proper socialism would be a portion of income tax being allocated toward funding a maintained park without added user fees for residents.
  It's usually cheaper overall for people using the park, but people who don't use the park complain about their taxes being used to foot the bill; the same as they complain about paying for fire protection service they don't use.

One of the "protect our children" protests in the UK yesterday involved burning down a brand new library because....reasons, I guess?
If you ever had any doubts about the right wing protests affecting the UK, remember they burned down a local community library for no fucking reason.
- protect the children from learning!
  
  Protect the children from finding out we suck

Y'all should all
- All y'all's.
- That's grammatically correct in the neck of the woods I grew up.
- Nice profil picture!

My wife is a library administrator in (depending on how you want to look at it) a large town or a small city.
Some of the things the library offers people might not expect:
• Free 3D printing.
• Free large format printing.
• Free sewing machines.
• A 'libary of things' where you can check out things like tools or musical instruments.
• Tabletop RPGs you can take home or play there with people.
• A teen room with an XBox and a Playstation and a bunch of games, but adults are welcome too.
• eBooks and streaming audiobooks, movies and TV. My wife listens to audiobooks constantly and hasn't paid for one in years.
You can also book a librarian to basically be your own personal researcher for a certain amount of time and they will even deliver books to you and pick them up later if you need them to.
Soon, a new branch will be opening. It will have a room with a lockable door and a signup sheet, one person allowed at a time. Inside will be a shower, a washer and a dryer, free to use.
By the way, if a library doesn't have the item you want but another library has it, they can get it for you from that library.
Libraries are amazing.
- I love the musical instrument loan programs. I loaned a violin for a month to test out whether I wanted to learn to play it.
  I like it and the experience gave me enough of an understanding of the instrument to feel comfortable buying a used one to continue on with.
  I don't think I ever would have started learning it without the library program, the instrument is so intimidating
  
  That's awesome! My wife brought home a ukulele to try, but then she never tried it and brought it home. On the other hand, she's already very good on piano, so that's not the worst thing in the world.

Same thing for surveys and stuff at museums and similar places. Help them get more funding with them, even if you don't have time to write something sincere. Numbers say a lot.

Libby app uses your library card for digital loans on books and audiobooks.
- Don't get too used to this. Libby was bought by the same vulture capital firm that bought Toys R Us among other businesses they killed
  
  Libby isn't the only app though! My library uses Libby and overdrive and maybe even a third one

A new public library place recently opened very near to where I live. I've nothing to say, am just a bit comforted that when the world is crashing and burning, at least I can be happy about this.
Also some libraries provide 3D printers which is really cool
edit: I didn't notice how many people were commenting about 3D printers
- Libraries around here also have free passes to museums among other things.

My library offers free accounts for online courses like Coursera and Udemy. Saved me a few hundred bucks when I was trying to get into UX and web development. All I had to give was an email and choose my local library from a list, that was literally it. I was surprised these things were readily available for free with no hassle.
- Mine lets me borrow eBooks and audiobooks via smartphone app, very useful and convenient.

I think libraries should get improved internet connections and some up to date web browsing capable computers for people who don't have Internet or computers at home.
- Now hear me out before I get stabbed. Libraries shouldn't have to provide this service. In fact I wish more libraries were specialized in locking down their systems to be only used for knowledge gathering. Think a terminal that an only access reliable web sources for information.
  We need a separate public space for free Internet access. Most libraries see funding hits because they are used as resources for the less fortunate to get back on their feet.
  Large metro libraries right now sort of act as a "get a job center" which the unfortunate fact is drives off anyone else who wants to use the library for it's actual resources. And also puts other costs on the library.
- About ten years back, I had moved away from home and was living in a small town with no Internet in my apartment. The only internet connection I had was the local library.
  I remember being so surprised at the amount of viruses on those dumb computers. I wondered what the heck people were doing to them to get them in that state, and then one time I saw some dude looking up porn and just downloading whatever programs the pages he came to told him to.
  Anyway, I'm glad I have Internet in my apartment now.
  
  The computers likely get automatically re-imaged overnight, so every morning is a fresh start. That (and some VERY strong LAN isolation) is pretty standard for public-facing computers, for exactly this reason.
- Need funding for that
- They don't already? My library system has since at least the early '00s.

And also, they have toilets.
- Starbucks, billions in revenue:
  We cAn nO loNGer be America’s bathroom
  Libraries, scrimping pennies:
  Piss with us. We’re family.

My library card means I don't need to buy a printer.
- That's what I use mine for too lol

I have a library card. But never used it bc I pirate all of my books. But I will still be keeping it.
- I also find most of my books through unconventional sources but still use my library card for books through apps like hoopla and libby, both for the convenience of the mobile format and to keep my ratios in line.
  
  I'm in Germany we have Onleihe and it's shit thats why I pirate.

📚 📖 🫲😃 = 😎 👍 🪙
and even if they don't know how to read, they could always pretend.
- They have audiobooks too
  
  Also some of them close to me allow you to rent/lend actual telescopes with a library card!
  
  And CDs and games and movies and services for poor people

Some have 3D printers!
- Our main branch has a whole mini-maker space in it. No wood, metal, or pottery stuff but there are 3d printers, cricut-like cutters, looms, knitting machines, and things like that.
  And a Library of Things that can be checkout out that include games, STEAM toys, baking pans, musical instruments, and more.

I always go grab the latest video game from my library. I don't pay for em. You get them for 3 weeks at a time and can borrow them as much as you want. This is how I managed to play the entire PS4 library pretty much.

Some US friends are sharing with me their library cards and it is great. I use them few times a year but you get access to many content. It is just a a shame I can't access CD Or DVD online.

I use my library card to access newspapers.

I thought ebooks are cool for a while but the smell, the memories, the sound of paper books. It’s my childhood. Life is the whole experience and nowadays I don’t even watch movies until I have a proper setup first, which sometimes also means stimulants. It’s why cinemas are still a thing.
We can strip it down to just clean, raw information but the noise enriches the taste.
- that's why I buy vinyls.
  but honestly I just listen to it all steaming on YouTube and downloaded from Anna's archive /shame

Vote Libraries for Government!!

Get a library card to impress the ladies or dudes 🤓
(only kinda joking)
- If they can’t recite their card number from memory on the first date, there won’t be a second one.
  (OK maybe more applicable before the advent of password managers… I ‘membered)

They also rent board games. It great for mystery games like Unlock that you can only play once or twice.

Hoopla works with Android TV to provide Movies and TV shows for free! (*works on many devices)

Where I live most museums give a discount if you have a library card. Best investment ever (the 10 min it took to get the free card)

Reminder to vote for any library funding levy in your area. They depend on it to stay open.

Fucking sucks that libraries are starting to implement anti-homeless policies, as that’s the only place a lot of them can get peace during the day
- Thankfully, I've not heard of that around here. The public library I worked at was chill about everyone visiting, including several people I'd consider "problems": dude that always sat next to the teen section and complained the teens were loud while being louder than any teen, and other dude that would sit in the middle of a row of public computers and turn off the ones on either side because she didn't want to sit next to anyone else.
  The only time we kicked anyone out was when someone was vaping. The only time someone got banned was when they were racist in response to being told they couldn't vape in the library.
  ETA: "around here" is suburban New England

I only use my card for software access.
With just Libby, Hoopla, and Mango Languages, The card has saved me thousands of dollars.

Ebooks for the win. I “go to” my library all the time by finding an ebook on Libby and downloading to a reader
- My local library doesn’t use Libby, and it makes me want to riot every time I think about it. They use another app called cloudLibrary, which is inferior in every way; It doesn’t even have e-reader support. You’re forced to read the books on your phone or desktop, because cloudLibrary refuses to integrate with third-party services like Amazon or B&N for kindle or nook. You can’t even download the ebooks. You have to view them in the app or on your desktop browser, and it basically loads a page at a time.
  Needless to say, I own library cards to all of the libraries in the surrounding cities, because all of those use Libby.

But how are they doing that without any profit motive?
/s

This is a national post, without any science

They'll also give you New York Times and Wall Street Journal access for when the paywall bypass stops working. At least mine does

Yes

I got a library card when I moved to this town and haven’t showed up there since.

ur
Tell us you don't read books.
- Your comment is based on a causal fallacy. Don't be a prick.
- Something tells me it's you who doesn't read enough. Checkout some words whose pronunciation is different from the spelling. You'd be surprised to know why that is. Or why some words have changed their spellings (from colour to color or metre to meter).
  "Bigot" is not a good look on you.