Libraries provide a host of public services beyond "warehouse for books". A big part of our digital archives come from library digitization programs. And knowing how to sort, store, and distribute this information is a vital piece of library science.
Losing libraries means losing the tools we use to organize information on a national scale.
yes. Personally, i use libraries because I cannot afford buying a book (mostly programming) and I don't like split screen and can't afford another monitor. I have used the library here in Toronto so many times they know me by name now at two branches.
If the city cares about aaving money theu would be buying useless military hardware for the NYPD. Tokyo, Seoul, Jakarta, and Osaka all do fine without blowing massive amounts if the municipal budget on military gear for their police departments. The NYPD "officially' had a 2022 budget over $5billion with aroind 36,000 officers. That's comparable to the entire military budget of Romania. Hell, the NYPD has field offices in 6 foreign countries.
So you're telling me that if we just started grinding cops into a fine powder we'd not only save on their salaries and benefits, we'd also save on the amount of equipment they need and could fund things like libraries and social safety nets? And that we could sell that fine powder for uses such as food for heads, surgery, delousing, cosmetics, bomb disposal, firepower, and head transplants and fund even more things?
I'm not saying we should be grinding cops into a fine powder. I'm saying let's take a look at where we could save more money while helping more people.
Torgo's Police Powder is certainly not a thing we should turn those fucking pigs into. No sir. And if someone tries laying this at my feet I'll deny it.
I mean, I dunno, ACAB and fuck tha police and all that jazz, but 5 bil for 36k is 138k/each, and that's not too unreasonably bad for NYC cost of living vs the inherent danger and work regime of the job as a police officer in such a populous city.
You don't understand though, that's millions we could throw at building another stadium for a private individual to own and profit off of!
It's the same with the federal budget and NASA. It pisses me off to no end to see the only x-ray telescope we have get the axe so we can throw fucking Raytheon more money to bomb Palestinians.
It's shocking to see the assault on libraries across Appalachia. Sad to see it's a broader problem. For as little finding as they require they provide critical services. So many nasty politicos trying to win some points with the lowest common denominators of humanity must see them as an easy target.
It's hysterical to hear right-wing commentary about how New York Democrats are socialist Marxist communist hippies when the reality has much more goose-stepping to it.
He won by 7k votes in an election with 21% registered voter turnout.
He won not by broad appeal but rather by apathy - his voters were engaged by fear mongering bait plastered on every news outlet about "crime" so they elected a goose stepping cop.
I had the homelessness situation described to me yesterday as such: When people see homelessness, they equate it to crime. But when people think of crime, they think of violent robberies and murders. This makes those people view the homeless only through a lense of prosecution. And this view and subsequent treatment only exacerbates the problem.
The picture included makes me think we should challenge the mayor's hotshot skier son to a race down Triple Diamond run, and if we win the library will be saved for us punk kids to use on Sundays.
I asked nypl to let me pay for a library card. they won't issue. they will issue if I walk into a branch, but it's a temporary card unless I can prove residency.
I don't think they should have their budget cut but I would pay a subscription fee to access it from out-of-state.
Good! How else are we supposed to fund POLICE OFFICERS who get to PICK and CHOOSE what crimes or people to Investigate if we don't defund School and Libraries?
are you really going to let us be beaten by new jersey? new jersey?
disclaimer
I have a public library 5 minutes away, (though I guess not a 'new york public library') this comment was made mostly for the funny and more importantly to shit on new jersey
this comment was written after staying awake over 30 hours and I am (very faintly) hallucinating the factorio express belts moving on my screen
As a general rule of thumb, "New York" refers to the city, unless otherwise specified such as "New York State", or in a list/map that's obviously only listing/labeling states.
Isn’t 0.4% of a gigantic city’s budget for just library services really fuckin expensive?
No. You're talking about something on the order of $3-5 / resident / year. That's significantly less than residents spend on Netflix - $192 / resident / year - by comparison. And they get access to physical space and materials, rather than having to source their own hardware to access the service.
It's a gigantic library, #1 in the world by visitors by a lot, #4 by number of books, and they're doing that in NYC in buildings that look like this and a bunch of the books are 600 years old or have George Washington's handwriting on them, so it's real fucking expensive.
It seems like a huge amount to me. 431 million dollars?
I like parks and public libraries, they enrich society for everyone. I just would have thought the the library's budget would be less of the total budget.
People don't like reading things that don't look appealing. For example, people could read a paragraph in Jokerman, but it'll be more difficult and they might decide it's not worth the effort.
Also capital letters are less legible because we don't just read letters, but rather their shape. And when in all caps, the letters all have the same rectangle shape.
Edit: apparently people can't read as I already said I support libraries and want them to exist for those that benefit from them. This was never a 'it doesn't help me so screw you' type of comment. I was just sharing my experience of liking the concept, but failing to find any personal benefits and wondering if others experienced the same.
I like the idea of public libraries, but honestly I just don't have a lot of use for them in my life personally. Unfortunately the books I read are primarily published under Kindle unlimited, so they can't be checked out of a library either in digital or paper form (not that many of the titles ever even have a paper copy). I don't really watch that much TV or movies, and the ones I do watch are generally acquired from the high seas anyway, which is honestly easier than checking them out of a library. I support the concept and want them to be available to others, I just don't personally feel like I get any value from them.
My condo building has three stations where people can get a doggie bag to pick up their dog shit.
Two are outside the gate and can be used by anybody.
I benefit from people picking up their dog shit even if they don't live here, so it's worth it that my HOA dues go to keep those stations filled.
Same difference. Even if you don't use the library you benefit from people in your city having access to the services that libraries provide. You also benefit by NYPD having $53,000,000 less to spend on weapons.
Libby is an app that allows you to use your library card to check out ebooks, audiobooks, and digitized magazines. Free to anyone with a library card (at a participating library).
That's one of several resources that a lot of libraries provide. Hoopla, as well, for shows and movies. And some have maker spaces, or 3d printers, or loan tools. And they usually have discount passes for local edutainment attractions (museums, aquariums, zoos, etc).
Some give you a month subscription to genealogy sites. Lots of stuff for little kids and families, usually activities or story times or craft classes. Classes for grownups too.
Tons of stuff at/from your local library. More than just books.
Most of my Kindle books are checked out from our library system, and if they are missing one book in a series or don't have something available I can request and results have been pretty good.
There is a LOT of content for the Kindle at the library and I'm in Florida, can't imagine we lead in this.
Amazon keeps pushing the Kindle unlimited but I can't see the value yet. You like it?
Oh no. You know shit is really terrible when they cannot even afford to communicate at 8 bits. It's 5 bits Baudot code. Capital letters only. They actually had to pay extra for @, #, and $. Thankfully, by 1870s, % was part of the character set. My heart's with anyone who can't just blast UTF-8 out wherever they can.
(Edit: In case you're wondering why it has a weird gif attached to it: The Memelord, Musky Elon, has decreed that you can actually attach a shitty random gif FOR FREE. So of course any cash strapped institution will do so.)