Do you visit your town’s library?

oh my yes! I've used the library here to read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, just for one. Lots of books that I really don't want to buy but want to read, I check out at the library. .

This reminds me I need to go and check something out...they inactivate your card if its not being used.

 

I have great memories and associations of going to the library in the village i grew up in (ugly building but i went there for the books. And even though i only went there for and was busy with selecting my new pile of books to read, you also are aware of that atmosphere. The old men at the newspaper table for instance..). In the end that library felt like i borrowed everything interesting lol. Relatively small library though. But it was great for me as a kid and teenager.
Then I moved on to libraries in the cities of which one is also a big nice neoclassicistic building. Really like that building. Still read plenty of books during my twenties but less and less from the library. To the point i one year didn't renew my subscription.. and never went back..

Oh yeah, I also went to copy stuff in my village library as a kid/teen a lot. It was just the place to do that. Around age 12 they got a computer with internet there. It's just one of those places you went to during your life for maybe a specific purpose but you also get a hint of what's up in the town/community.. which i didn't consciously value at the time but i do with hindsight. Fond memories! But now i read far less and borrow from a friend or buy the book.

 

I want to go to Asmo's village!

 

The part where the library is is very ordinary and the library building an ugly 1950s building. Practical but not beautiful or anything. The village itself has its spots though!
I mainly have fond memories because it really was opening my world in my youth. I also first went to the library with my mom or dad. Then later by myself. My strongest association is that i went there often around 5 pm in autumn and winter and it was kind of snug in there while already getting dark outside, and a bit rainy and chilly etc.

 

Not sure how it is in Europe, but in America libraries seem to have become hang out spots for the homeless and mentally ill. I have been to many libraries across the country and in each one there seem to be the same people--like a shabby looking gentleman with a pungent odor who is engaged in rapid and unintelligible banter with himself. A 50-something woman in 400 layers of clothing walking wide-eyed and timid through the aisles. A person tucked in the corner armchair, sleeping. A small group of retired old men who meet there to chat on weekday mornings. Some potentially dangerous 30something man trying to discretely look at porn on the library computers.

Actually, several libraries around me have hired staff social workers to help these folks, which is nice.

 

I remember when I lived around Silverlake/Glendale/LosFeliz area. There were two libraries; the one in Silverlake and the main library in downtown. The LA library is massive! It's a multi-story affair with escalators and different tiers etc. Really neat place.

Like YFM is saying, there is a large homeless element there; particularly downtown. I remember this one guy was sleeping in a chair. I can't remember if I could smell him or not, but I think he looked dirty or something. I used to really resent that, but I've learned that there really isn't a whole lot the homeless can do differently. They're really just people down on their luck. I don't give them money anymore though. I might donate to a charity, but I suspect that half of whatever they're getting goes to fast food and the other half to their drug/alcohol habits respectively; at least in the case of panhandling. But they're as entitled to use the library as anyone, though I do wish their hands were cleaner.

 

our local library is overrun by animals , I can fax and make copies at work ..

 

Indeed. I can only bring so many books from Canada (adds a lot of weight). Libraries in Shanghai have a dedicated English section though, so it's no big deal.

 

Yes! More times than I can count.

 

Accurate description of the library in my current city... Lol

Maybe evidence we live in a simulation

 

the library here has a couple nice meeting rooms that i've had to attend various meetings in. but i haven't actually used a library as a library since grad school. and i haven't had a library card since about 12 years ago, when i didn't have tv or internet for a couple years so i used their internet and read a lot more books than i do now.

my mom reads constantly and gives me all her old hand me down books. i can't even keep up with that.

 

Sometimes, the one that is in the city, further away from me. I don't like the one that's in the suburbs around here.

 

Well, villages and town libraries not at all. I never noticed the bums and lowlifes in the bigger city libraries neither, but we do have homeless folks there. Far less then in american cities though. I think they hang out more at thrift shops with community tables, food kitchens etc.
I suspect that if you look like you're in the library for no good purpose you get asked to remove yourself. But not sure these days because more and more people go to the library now to hang, meet, lounge and use the internet. The occassional guy trying to watch porn at the library is a known phenomenom here too...

 

Do they pay for membership?

I've never seen the homeless and mentally ill in libraries here...and I go a lot.

I think our librarians would be quick to escort them out.

Anyways, I love libraries.
I didn't go to kindergarten (the only kid lol) because that's when we came to Croatia, and there was a lot of going on, so it never happened.
But my mother took me to libraries religiously. Kids would go to kindergarten where they learned to read and all that, and I went to the library lol.
And I thank her for that.
Everyone in my family is a reader.
When I was a kid my father worked for various newspapers. And everyday he'd bring newspapers and we'd all have to read what he wrote and everything. I loved it.
Now that I think about it, the topics he wrote about...maybe it wasn't all entirely kid-friendly xD

 

not in any public library that i've encountered. it's basically free books and free internet, so it's a perfect fit for someone with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no money.

on the other hand, the last time i got a library card they required me to have an address, and the library card was required to take out books or use the internet, so i'm not sure how that reconciles with being homeless.

 

Yeah, you don't get to just come in and sit and hang out if you're not a member

 

I used to skip school and go and read in the local library. I learned more there than I did in my godawful school. Haven't used one for some years now. I like buying books.

 

You dont need a membership here, cards are free and even without a card you can still read books in the library, you just cant take them with you

There's usually a handful of homeless people hanging out in the downtown library here, but not a lot. More when its cold or raining. They dont bother anyone.

 

I pass by the library all the time but never stop by.

 

Not but I did take several pictures of the exterior - does that count?

I wanted to capture it in all 4 seasons.