@freemo
Here in Canada we enjoy services similar to what Freemo is describing for the US. And it is a nice thing.

All of those "full-service" public libraries had their beginnings as privately endowed services, there are many older library buildings that still have the name of their patrons (Carnegie Mellon was one of the major ones, if I recall correctly) in their buildings.

At the time the first ones appeared, to provide access to the working classes to reading and self improvement materials, at that time no such service existed at all; public or private.

My small town here in Canada has a memorial Library building (no longer used as the main branch, now relocated to larger premises) with the name of the benefactor who accepted funding a large part of the costs of building and stocking it.

At that time, working people had very long hours, much less leisure time, but could get better opportunities if they got more education. Either via self-improvement, or thru some night school courses, either in general knowledge or specific trade areas they worked in.

Now we have more free time, but there seems to be much despair on the opportunities (or lack thereof) of self improvement for the same working people.

Interesting to learn about how they have changed in the NL, it's one possible way things could go.

I remember reading an article, possibly on The Atlantic, talking about the situation on a small town in Southern US, where a wave of prosperity temporarily landed via the exploration of cracking and underground gas fields. They entered into some larger public projects, including a new Library building, and then things started to change. As fracking has a rapid rate of decline, and then the income flow trickles down fairly quickly, and the operators move on to new land leases in the next nearby shale formations.

Now the small town had this 5 Million Dollar new Library and many people were resentful of the head librarian getting a small raise - this was going to come to a Town Hall meeting for discussion, but turned nasty when posted in the town's Facebook group. A lot of opposition, citing the lower average wages in the area, etc.

It wasn't even taken to the Town Hall, such was the nastiness and divisiveness shown in that FB thread. The report was quite good and gave us an insight on the frame of mind of the town residents and the regional circumstances.

Things must be bleak in the UK, I imagine, which has been under Tory rule and in slashing mode for years now. Plus, Boris.

@thecomputermaster@mastodon.social