Libraries where good for before the XXI century. Nowadays the amount of content they had is pretty small. Most libraries don’t really has anything but the more famous books.
We got a nationwide network of specific books. You can order books to your local library if you are a little patient. They might not have a lot of selfpublished books but that is a problem of scale and negotiating power of publishers.
We live in a system that actively prevents humans to get more knowledge, go figure.
We live in a system that monetizes everything, then seeks to restrict access to those things in order to profit.
Knowledge is just one casualty.
Scarcity is money and if there is no scarcity laws will be bought to to artificially create said scarcity.
No one is preventing you from visiting a library, which would be a fesible alternative.
However, not a simple solution for everyone in every country. Knowlegde should be a free and shared common good.
actually blatantly wrong, public libraries are slowly dying and losing funding.
That depends on where you live. The Internet Archive is far more accessible than a good library, for much of the global populace.
And my library doesn’t have every book I want to read.
Yes, I know. That’s why I said:
It’s not even limited by country. There are far too many places in well resourced countries that don’t have access to good (or any) libraries.
Well, except scumbags like eric adams, NYC’s bought-owned-and-operated-by-real-estate-interests mayor.
He’s also a corrupt cop, but I repeat myself.
Libraries where good for before the XXI century. Nowadays the amount of content they had is pretty small. Most libraries don’t really has anything but the more famous books.
They became community hubs that offer more than just books. Even ebooks albeit that being weirdly capped by publishers as well.
They do much more than public opinion would make you believe.
True, but that doesn’t change the fact that specific books can be hard to find. Libraries are great, but they don’t solve the problem IA solves.
We got a nationwide network of specific books. You can order books to your local library if you are a little patient. They might not have a lot of selfpublished books but that is a problem of scale and negotiating power of publishers.