“Provide services to poor people” is really valuable and kinda covers this but it’s worth mentioning on its own anyway: a lot of libraries have tools and stuff you can borrow when you need something occasionally but not often enough to waste money and storage space on having it. Need a food dehydrator for the occasional camping trip? Waffle maker? Laser cutter? Amazing service for anyone imo, poor or not
This will vary a lot of course, but in a lot of cases your local library may not be just your local library.
The library in my town isn’t anything too special, it’s a little small and doesn’t really have a lot of the cool things people talk about libraries having these days (though I am occasionally surprised, they have mobile hotspots you can borrow for example)
But it’s part of a network of libraries from around my county, so I can go check things out of around 30 different libraries and some of those other branches have a lot more cool stuff than mine does
My library has a seed library where I can go get seed packets ☺️
They also have a really cool little maker space, but I’ve never used it before (I wanna use the 3d printers some time but have to take the classes before I can use them)
“Provide services to poor people” is really valuable and kinda covers this but it’s worth mentioning on its own anyway: a lot of libraries have tools and stuff you can borrow when you need something occasionally but not often enough to waste money and storage space on having it. Need a food dehydrator for the occasional camping trip? Waffle maker? Laser cutter? Amazing service for anyone imo, poor or not
This will vary a lot of course, but in a lot of cases your local library may not be just your local library.
The library in my town isn’t anything too special, it’s a little small and doesn’t really have a lot of the cool things people talk about libraries having these days (though I am occasionally surprised, they have mobile hotspots you can borrow for example)
But it’s part of a network of libraries from around my county, so I can go check things out of around 30 different libraries and some of those other branches have a lot more cool stuff than mine does
My library even has original art you can borrow
My library has a seed library where I can go get seed packets ☺️
They also have a really cool little maker space, but I’ve never used it before (I wanna use the 3d printers some time but have to take the classes before I can use them)
Laser cutting? I need this back in my life. I used to dabble with the one at my last job. They’re fun.