I’d quibble that any organization that acts to spread knowledge qualifies as free in the sense of expanding freedom of choice, and argue thus that if their operational costs as a public nonprofit have to be expressed as an at-cost service (or reasonably priced and used to subside their other related operations) - that’s still a meaningful free in multiple ways.
But on a more basic level - yeah, it is shameful that libraries (broadly speaking) often have to operate like they’re badly managed businesses. But that arguably in most cases is not the fault of the library itself but on society (late stage capitalism, billionaires and the other usual suspects).
Tl;dr: You’re not wrong, but also is that really the hill you wanna plant your flag in?
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Yet another pedant “But taxes!!!1!”
C’mon man. We all know. This is not an edgy take.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Private libraries exist. Some are very expensive (e.g. a classic car library).
Tabooki@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Must it be edgy?
Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
You intended it to be.
Tabooki@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Mind-reader.