this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2024
282 points (95.2% liked)
Technology
57432 readers
4335 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
so low-income people in the argument are pretty obvious
how about people with disabilities or rural communities? why are they there? do they have easier access to libraries than bookstore?
and what the hell are lgbt people doing there? do they read disproportionately more more than average non-lgbt population, or why are they singled out?
seems like this whole paragraph is just "lets throw in some minorities, no one can talk back at that" lame argument
Libraries are safe spaces for minorities and the LGBTQ+ community. Books in general spread awareness and raise empathy and can also help struggling young people understand that they are not alone.
That quote isn't saying people of these communities read or use a public library more than those who aren't; it's pointing out that the erasure of public safe spaces and resources affects groups that benefit from their existence more.
All of that doesn't even mention the content that was likely present in those 500,000 books.
this text was primarily about digital archives, so i don't think this applies much
this does make sense, ok then.
Online lending allows people in remote or rural places much more economical access to more titles than otherwise, even if they have access to a decent local library
oh right, i totally ignored the "digital" part, even though i mentioned that in nearby reply. my bad.
The argument centers around the equality of access, which is especially relevant in the digital age. Rural & disabled population may have problem accessing content with certain restrictions (e.g. need physical access, lack of accessibility features, only available in some region).
fair point, i seem to have conveniently ignored that i was talking about digital, not physical, archive here...