>philosophy section contains no philosophical texts, but “How Your Mind Works” and “Being Happy Even Though You Are Sad”, etc.>religion section contains pop-Protestant devotional material, New Age astrology, biblical debunking popularization, maybe something by C.S. Lewis, an English Quran, beginner’s guide to Buddhism, etc.>psychology section is all self-help and women’s menstrual emotions>history section is sensational WW2 stories, Graham Hancock, feminist revisionism>most of the shelves are dedicated to fiction>fiction section contains airport thrillers, paranormal romances, just a few token classics like Dickens, Star Wars novels, etc.>there is an indoor playground. There is actually an indoor playground in the library >only respectable section is local history that I have no interest in Why, oh why, my anons, has this happened? Isn’t the public library system supposed to preserve written knowledge and help enlighten the public? Why are they giving crocheting tutorials and lending out Whale Rider on DVD instead? Did they just trash all the real books?
>>25635300Get access to your local university's library if you want actual scholarly philosophical textsAgreed that most of what's at the public library is trash
>>25635303This. Most universities allow public borrowing they just don’t advertise it. However to the op public libraries where I live are actually pretty decent and not at all as you describe.
>>25635300>biblical debunking popularization>beginner’s guide to BuddhismThat's good though
>>25635300Donate to your library if you hate the books there so much
>>25635309Uneducated normies can't handle the books I'd want to see
i go daily to my local library and have never picked up a single book from there, i always bring my own stuffi am NOT reading the latest black wakanda feminist slop by taxes paid for
>>25635365i dont do what jews force upon meyou think scholars like plato and aristotle were wage cucks?
>>25635355You hurt me, so, dearest anon. Do you take offense at my disregard of local history or that I consider it respectable in comparison with the other offerings?
>>25635309I currently possess only a single book, East of Eden, which I picked up from a neighborhood ‘little library’. This is why I went to the library to get more books. And if I had my own books I would guard them jealously.
>Why, oh why, my anons, has this happened?Its how capitalism functions. even social programs like libraries need to justify their existence with patrons so knowledge becomes a commodity.
>>25635300This is a large reason why I'm hesitant about leaving the city. But the library I subscribe to, the London Library, allows for books to be borrowed and returned via post, which might in the end save me.
>>25635300my local thrift store is the same way when it comes to philosophy. for every sartre or heidegger, there are dozens of "HOW TO" books that have nothing in common with a philosophy class syllabus, they're just glorified "X For Dummies"
>>25635300i dont live in magastan so my libraries are fine. could use less self help slop, i suppose. im also surprised to hear that msot of the shelves are fiction, my local library is like 75% non fiction.
>>25635394i make money through my business i just dont have a job in the traditional sense where i have to wake up in the morning and wageslavei also own my apartment and dont have expensive hobbies besides alcoholism
Even within academia serious philosophy readers are a small minority. It’s e/lit/e, you’re not going to find heavy philosophy at the plebshack.
>>25635300is north america THAT fucked up?? though i live in some poor ass country, i have full acces to otto weininger, evola, houllebecq, deleuze, etc, etc, etc. SA social democrats won?
Woe is me, for I thought to find companions in commiseration, but have found instead accusers and adversaries and am pilloried as one mean, rude, selfish, and at odds with my own locality. Why did I ever make a thread, why did I venture to become the OP? To Anna’s Archive do I retreat.
>>25635300I stole all the good ones
>>25635309Lol. they throw that shit away brobro
>>25635300I did an impromptu census in my local library once. There was nothing by Dickens, Trollope, Thackeray or Defoe. And this was the main central lending library of a major English city. The whole place is basically just an internet café now.
>>25635870I saw people eating and drinking in the library and almost had a heart attack, until I recalled that none of them were touching any of the books, just their YouTube and TikTok machines, and in any case none of the books in the building really need grease and coffee stain protection
>>25635431I don't know how it is where OP lives but my local library system lets you order whatever book you want as long as you have the ISBN. Takes a while and they're a bit more pushy about returning it on time but I've always been able to get what I want
My local library is pretty nice and has a good collection. I don't know what your problem is.
You can rent cake pans and power tools from my library. And they got rid of most of the reeking jerking off homeless somehow. Book selection is only ok though. They'll have the author you're looking for but never the specific book of his that you want.
>>25635300Check to see if your library has an interlibrary loan system. The only time that didn't get me something I wanted was when there wasn't a copy in the entire country. Still a shame that most people read slop, but I'm still grateful as it subsidizes my ILL requests.
>>25635383Poor people would choose for 100% of the public library fund to go to weed, kalshi, and fruit rollups
Public libraries are obsolete and should all be shutdown.
>>25635300Most libraries now have fairly alright online libraries but at that point literally just piracy is often better. I wish libraries stayed with their domain of physical books to be honest, it seems they keep trying to diversify at the cost of the books themselves
>>25635300I fuckin hate public libraries so much. The ones near me are filled to the brim with activist dykes who hate dealing with customers and old retired feminist retards. That and it's just filled with the homeless half the time on the computers, which isn't too bad, but annoying. Fuck the public funded library. Ever cunt working in there is a bonafide actual cunt who HATES having to answer any kind of question or if you need help with something, they act like it's a personal affront to their entire existence. At this point just create an open source library where you just download that damn book akin to pirating. Fuckin' bullshit.
>>25637700If you need help to use the library you’re probably retarded anon. They’re annoyed with you because you’re retarded.
>>25638015God forbid someone asks a question.
>>25635300My local is my own private book depository. We have a very good library, and no one reads. The only books I see regularly taken out are Dosto and Austen. Everything else is mine >:D
>>25638043>My local is my own private book depository.Good sight lines?
>>25638015First few times I went to my local library I kept getting dirty looks because I deposited my books in the book deposit box, instead of using the book deposit terminal which would direct you to put it into a deposit box next to the book deposit box. In either case, you had to return the book to the librarian first who then refused to tell me what to do with the books I was returning. I guess I was supposed to know there was a printed piece of paper next to the left-most computer which explained the whole process.
>>25635300Daily reminder that if your local library is shit, then the people in your community are retarded
>>25635300I became disillusioned with most libraries after I'd say 2022. By then it had become obvious that the library system as we know it is fucked from what people would expect it to be. I worked at universities in their IT departments and became quite close with some of the library staff.University libraries are basically the only useful ones left, as others have mentioned. Most public community libraries are facing constant threat of having funding pulled or they get into hot water, so instead of relying on fines to return books they have gimmicks like drag story hour or playgrounds or 3D print rooms or tool libraries, because it brings people in. Your average community library patron is typically a liberal woman with kids, so community libraries 100% pander to that. If they had The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich or some shit, people would flip. It also doesn't help that over the last twenty years identity politics have taken over everything, and academia has gotten more left leaning, so the librarians that have graduated and are now running library systems have also gone more left. Of course, that influences library decisions, which means undesirable books get thrown out of collections and replaced with complete shit for common, socially acceptable tastes.>>25635309You would have to donate cash to the level you would be a controlling patron to get what you want, and even then if you tried to pull something they'd refuse your patronage. You'd be better off starting your own library.>>25635384A lot of states in the US have that already. Hell, where I live (colorado) if I walk into a university library I can have the library ship at book to me, at thier expense, and then I reutn it there and they ship it back to the library, again at their expense. Good for finding really obscure shit.>>25635388Thrift stores are the sum of whatever people in your community used to own ten years ago. If you arent in a university town the books are going to be meh.
>>25638145Truth
>>25637700Dude, the homeless problem is one of the bigger issues libraries deal with. It was kind of interesting at the last university I worked with, because the liberal women running the show there wanted to be welcoming and friendly, but eventually even the reality of life made them break and accept that homeless people are degens that can't be trusted. What happened was that a group of homeless people would come in and check out, or just outright steal expensive texts (like pharmacology or nursing textbooks or something they discovered was rare on an app) and then they would just sell it online. Really sad too, becuase some of those texts they were stealing were antique books the library had from the 1800s.
>>25638178That is sad
>>25638178That's pretty bad. I'm between housing and spend a lot of time at the local library, I can't imagine how these people get to the point that they would try and profit from hanging around a library. My local ones pretty good, I go in there to warm up and read. They had the poetic and prose eddas, I just finished Faust, and now I'm reading Rousseaus Emile. It's amazing, thank you Tolstoy for turning me on to him.
I was very disappointed to find out that public libraries in my vountry get rid of books after they have not been borrowed for a couple of years. What a great way to turn your selection to lowest common denominator pile of trash.
>>25638871I knew a girl who worked at a library and her job was to dispose of books, which iirc included physical destruction of the book to some extent. It reminded me of when I worked at a supermarket and had to throw a few shopping carts worth of food into the dumpster every day (dumpster kept locked up to keep the homeless from feeding themselves, of course)
>>25635300I like bullying my library. I wish more anons did that. Hell, I am fairly certain the librarians and staff do as well.
I know a few librarian and have lamented about their philosophy section.They told me to request books for myself then the library gets them and holds onto them.All you do is fill out a paper.I have never done this for i like to write in my books, the moi polloi dont care for reading philosophy outside of "the philosophy of Rick and morty" or whatever, and now my college library is well stocked.
>>25639111I request books so my library has more books, even if I do not read them. Simply doing my part for civilization.
