• daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    Libraries where good for before the XXI century. Nowadays the amount of content they had is pretty small. Most libraries don’t really has anything but the more famous books.

    • Akrenion@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      They became community hubs that offer more than just books. Even ebooks albeit that being weirdly capped by publishers as well.

      They do much more than public opinion would make you believe.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        True, but that doesn’t change the fact that specific books can be hard to find. Libraries are great, but they don’t solve the problem IA solves.

        • Akrenion@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          We got a nationwide network of specific books. You can order books to your local library if you are a little patient. They might not have a lot of selfpublished books but that is a problem of scale and negotiating power of publishers.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            That’s pretty sweet! I grew up in an area with a county system, so you could get books from anywhere in the system (a dozen or so citires serving >1M people).

            My current library is just our city, but I can go to a few other cities to check out books, but I can’t use holds there unless I pay $2-3/item to have it delivered to my library. We have a statewide ebook/audiobook network (serves 3-4M people), so that’s nice.