• MnemonicBump@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    39·
    10 days ago

    I love my local library. I just checked out a bunch of records that I’ve never heard on vinyl, and since my home Internet is currently shut off, I’ve been checking out a mobile hotspot once a week and plugging it straight into my router

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
    32·
    10 days ago

    Meanwhile authors, who you might imagine might be most upset at their books being “given away” by libraries, actually love libraries and are delighted to hear stories of people checking their books out.

    • StickyDango@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      9 days ago

      Can confirm. I wrote to an author asking what I the best way I can support her because I have so limited space in the place I currently in. She said buying physical books is the best, but I was surprised to learn that borrowing books from libraries is also a big help. Authors don’t make much from ebook sales.

    • Bababasti@feddit.org
      13·
      10 days ago

      Our local library has a maker space with 3D-Printing/Laser-Cutting tools, embroidery, overlock and regular sewing machines. Also half a floor of board games and video games. And the „library of things“ where you can rent whole ass laptops, beamers projectors, different cables, hiking backpacks, cameras, sports gear…. Stuff like that. All included in a ridiculously low yearly fee.

      I love libraries.

      • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        10 days ago

        What’s a beamer? When I search online it just says it’s a latex document class, which is not a loanable item, or a slang term for a bmw, which would imply a very upscale library

        • Bababasti@feddit.org
          4·
          10 days ago

          Ugh, sorry, Beamer is one of those stupid English words used in the German language. A Beamer in German is a projector. The most famous example of this is the use of the word „Handy“ for mobile phones in German. It’s an English word but it does not mean the same in German…

          • ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            3·
            10 days ago

            This was not worthy of an apology. You’ve done nothing wrong. Who has hurt you? Make them pay.

            Thanks for clarifying though! That’s a cool ass word. For clarity I am using the slang “cool-ass” not cool “ass-word”. But it’s less syllables and while both are accurate to what the thing does I think calling attention to the beam of light is cooler, personally.

            Also, you may be well aware of this but “handy” is slang for getting a wiener tug and I think I’d giggle a bit every time someone used that terminology. “Oh did you get a handy” they’d say, as I come home from the Vodafone store. “I am not so skilled as to get such a thing from the clerk. I merely got an iphone”. I would laugh at my own jokes, but no one else probably would.

            Thanks for going on this journey with me. Sorry if it sounded like I am mocking your language, that is not my intent. If anything I would mock English, as it is the dumbest language and only getting dumber by the day (6-7!)

            • TeddE@lemmy.world
              1·
              9 days ago

              What’s a ‘six, five thousand and forty’? I will never get meme culture. 😉! (=😉×(😉-1)×(😉-2)×[…]×3×2×1)

  • RedFrank24@lemmy.world
    4·
    9 days ago

    Technically libraries don’t give away books for free, they lend them out but they also pay for them. There’s a reason publishers are more than happy to sell books to libraries, but hate Internet Archive, and that’s because a library can only lend out however many copies of the book they have at a time, but Internet Archive lent out hundreds of generated copies.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      3·
      9 days ago

      Even for ebooks, libraries are limited to how many they can lend out, plus the ebook has an imposed end of life.

      I’ve read claims that ebooks are more expensive for libraries than physical books, because of those limitations

      • zed_arthen@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        8 days ago

        Ebooks are a fun hell to order for a library. Many do have an end of life either in the form of maximum number of checkouts or under a license of 1-2 year access. They have all the same restrictions as normal books so patrons still have to wait to access the magic pixel arrangement. Ebooks are also generally just more expensive, even with the limitations. I have seen several above the $100 range, and many of those still have some form of end of life. If you ever wonder why your libraries ebook collection is a little slim, it is because they are incredibly cost prohibitive to maintain.

    • TeddE@lemmy.world
      8·
      9 days ago

      I’d quibble that any organization that acts to spread knowledge qualifies as free in the sense of expanding freedom of choice, and argue thus that if their operational costs as a public nonprofit have to be expressed as an at-cost service (or reasonably priced and used to subside their other related operations) - that’s still a meaningful free in multiple ways.

      But on a more basic level - yeah, it is shameful that libraries (broadly speaking) often have to operate like they’re badly managed businesses. But that arguably in most cases is not the fault of the library itself but on society (late stage capitalism, billionaires and the other usual suspects).

      Tl;dr: You’re not wrong, but also is that really the hill you wanna plant your flag in?

    • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      9 days ago

      Freedom isn’t free.

      Want to drive in a world with roads that won’t destroy your car? Taxes. Want to live in a world where people are free to stab you without worrying of repercussions, if not, taxes. Want to live in a country with a strong economy and workforce, if so taxes.