They provide services to ALL people. So tired of reading that only the poor use the library. My kids are always begging to be taken there to get books and do activities. We just used the color printer/copier at ours the other day and the first 3 copies were free. Libraries are an amazing community resource for EVERYONE.
The Los Angeles Public Library offers:
- Free Museums tickets
- Free Zoo tickets (LA city residence only)
- Free state park passes
- You can borrow laptop, tablet, or even portable a Wi-Fi hotspot
- Free education software (Mango and Linkedin Learning)
- Free Comics, Music, Magazines, and Movies
- Free and cheap 3D printing
Obviously not every library offers all this, but check in with your local branch, and you might be pleasantly surprised.
One of the “protect our children” protests in the UK yesterday involved burning down a brand new library because…reasons, I guess?
If you ever had any doubts about the right wing protests affecting the UK, remember they burned down a local community library for no fucking reason.
protect the children from learning!
My wife is a library administrator in (depending on how you want to look at it) a large town or a small city.
Some of the things the library offers people might not expect:
• Free 3D printing.
• Free large format printing.
• Free sewing machines.
• A ‘libary of things’ where you can check out things like tools or musical instruments.
• Tabletop RPGs you can take home or play there with people.
• A teen room with an XBox and a Playstation and a bunch of games, but adults are welcome too.
• eBooks and streaming audiobooks, movies and TV. My wife listens to audiobooks constantly and hasn’t paid for one in years.
You can also book a librarian to basically be your own personal researcher for a certain amount of time and they will even deliver books to you and pick them up later if you need them to.
Soon, a new branch will be opening. It will have a room with a lockable door and a signup sheet, one person allowed at a time. Inside will be a shower, a washer and a dryer, free to use.
By the way, if a library doesn’t have the item you want but another library has it, they can get it for you from that library.
Libraries are amazing.
Same thing for surveys and stuff at museums and similar places. Help them get more funding with them, even if you don’t have time to write something sincere. Numbers say a lot.
Libby app uses your library card for digital loans on books and audiobooks.
Don’t get too used to this. Libby was bought by the same vulture capital firm that bought Toys R Us among other businesses they killed
Libby isn’t the only app though! My library uses Libby and overdrive and maybe even a third one
Some US friends are sharing with me their library cards and it is great. I use them few times a year but you get access to many content. It is just a a shame I can’t access CD Or DVD online.
My library offers free accounts for online courses like Coursera and Udemy. Saved me a few hundred bucks when I was trying to get into UX and web development. All I had to give was an email and choose my local library from a list, that was literally it. I was surprised these things were readily available for free with no hassle.
My library card means I don’t need to buy a printer.
That’s what I use mine for too lol
And also, they have toilets.
📚 📖 🫲😃 = 😎 👍 🪙
and even if they don’t know how to read, they could always pretend.
They have audiobooks too
Also some of them close to me allow you to rent/lend actual telescopes with a library card!
Woah… If you’re comfortable sharing it, what state is that?
And CDs and games and movies and services for poor people
And tools and cookware and electronics and community events!
I always go grab the latest video game from my library. I don’t pay for em. You get them for 3 weeks at a time and can borrow them as much as you want. This is how I managed to play the entire PS4 library pretty much.
They also rent board games. It great for mystery games like Unlock that you can only play once or twice.
Get a library card to impress the ladies or dudes 🤓
(only kinda joking)
Reminder to vote for any library funding levy in your area. They depend on it to stay open.
