[quantim]

That's nothing.  Go to zillow or something similar.  There is no reason to have a tax-funded 'library' these days unless to archive and preserve old books out of print.  There is no demand for this, as my local library does not accept books as donations, lol.  They are just ways gubmint can tax you more to keep these dinosaurs alive.

When you discover that your mortgage balance is public info that anyone can get, well that makes the notion of a library irrelative.

[Mr. Jeeves]

They are just ways gubmint can tax you more to keep these dinosaurs alive.

Their primary value seems to be as places for hoary old Leftists to hold "Kucinich 2008" coffees. ;)

But yeah, my town wants to spend 50 million dollars to build a new one, when they could deliver more value to the community by leasing a nice big office suite and filling it with Intel iMacs for less than a tenth of the cost.

[linda_22003]

"There is no reason to have a tax-funded 'library' these days unless to archive and preserve old books out of print."

Well, yes, there is. Many public libraries have extensive databases that are available to the public through the library's subscription. Enterprise licenses to digital material serves the entire community far more efficiently than individual books ever did - but they can be expensive, so taxpayer funding would still be needed for these resources, which you can access more easily than ever.