“Ironically, for all of the scheduled programming it offers, the BPL has discovered one of the biggest services it provides is simply its space—giving people a place to be. For free.”
Pages: 1 2
4 thoughts on ““Who needs libraries, anyway?” – Wowza!”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
What a fantastic overview of what BPL does and the importance of libraries. Living in Massachusetts myself, I can attest to how much this state believes in and funds libraries. Personally, I’ve been feeling the financial squeeze as streaming services are becoming prohibitively expensive and I’m grateful to all that my area public libraries have to offer!
@naomimcd I love that! Yay for Massachusetts!
Wow, what a wonderful read! It is refreshing to hear about wonderful services being offered by the Boston Public Library. Although I don’t live all that far from there (5 hours) i never hear any talk on it. Often I feel the focus is on NYPL or more in this program, west coast libraries. I enjoyed seeing this perspective on libraries. I am also super jealous of the funding “Last year, the BPL had more than 2.1 million visits and loaned out some 660,000 print books and 3.8 million digital items. It’s one reason that politicians keep sustaining the BPL with plenty of money. (Its annual operating budget is just under $50 million.)” New York State has the opposite problem and have to fight for funding. I just saw that NYPL has to cut hours at some branches due to budget cuts. It is such a shame but i happy to see one East Coast library is persevering .
@mandyluwho I saw that too… a lot of NYPL locations (if not all) are closing Sundays now. ☹️