Anti-anti-libraries and books

There are many people today who believe that print books and libraries are old and outdated. That they are no longer relevant in today’s day and age. LISNews just had a couple of great responses to these shortsighted people.

The first is for those who think that books are irrelevant now that e-readers are here.

from NYT, Personal Tech :
“BOOKS – Keep them (with one exception [cookbooks, see article]). Yes, e-readers are amazing, and yes, they will probably become a more dominant reading platform over time, but consider this about a book: It has a terrific, high-resolution display. It is pretty durable; you could get it a little wet and all would not be lost. It has tremendous battery life. It is often inexpensive enough that, if you misplaced it, you would not be too upset. You can even borrow them free at sites called libraries.”

The second is for those who think that libraries are an unnecessary expense for the country.

“Save America. Close Your Library.

As an example, last year our library let 1 million people use our computers. And we circulated 10 million items.

One million computer uses does not translate to users, but we have a lot of visitors, so I’ll say that we had 250,000 unique users.

What would that mean if we closed the library and forced those people to pay for what fills their hours of unemployment?

What if they paid for that computer that we’ve been letting them use for free? 250,000 people buying $300 netbooks equals $75,000,000.

$15 a month for internet access equals $45,000,000/year.

And this is just my people. What if every large metropolitan area were like this? Think of all this potential money in a place like New York City. Or Los Angeles.

What about all those circulated items?

We know that everyone wouldn’t buy all the things they get for free from the library because some of our patrons are shoplifters and thieves. So those library users would just steal things.

But many other library users would pay for what they want. And this is what could save America. Right now, people are getting all this free stuff from libraries that they could be buying from their local merchants. Books, ebooks, DVDs, music and books on CDs, Ke$hadise, Bieberdise, Gagadise, information, babysitting services, newspapers, magazines, nice furniture, assorted items that people need to buy in order to use the restrooms at the local stores, etc. Babysitters! My God, libraries take money from babysitters!”