Libraries are also one of the few community third spaces left that don't require participation in commerce to justify your presence. That's worth protecting.
Theres a book series (Quill & Still) where on of the things is that in order to be a town they are *required* to have free public libraries of a certain size for the population with mandatory sets of educational and reference or else they aren't recognized by the government. I think about that a lot
My mom lives in this tiny little rural town. Population is only in the four figures. Politics in the area are deep deep red. Lots of rural poverty. And the county library is one of the most loved places in that town. There's story time. Outdoor movie nights.
Everybody loves it and the people there.
Public libraries became a thing after the extension of the franchis to the working classes, on the basis that the electorate needed to be educated to make choices. Worth remembering that.
My favorite thing about libraries is that they are one of the last places that can recreate the feeling of wandering the aisles at Blockbuster and going home with a stack of movies because the covers looked cool.
