Most library activity is entertainment, not research, not knowledge. It’s still difficult, even with SAILS, to find good technical books. Romance novels, detective stories, sure, hundreds of those. But the tech side is weak at best.
So my question is this: would the general public support libraries if all that entertainment went away? I don’t think they would
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The value of libraries
Interesting, and I assume that by “general public” you also mean *public library* patrons? Conversely, at a state library association conference, a speaker groused about elementary and secondary level male students not flocking to the book genres which you refer to as “entertainment”, My reaction was, why does it matter which genre they choose to flock to? Reading is reading (I also thought of Raganathan’s second and third “laws”). My job as an academic librarian and my assignments as a book reviewer necessitate that I pay close attention to non-fiction. Being aware of facts has never been more timely or important.
A public library is a place
A public library is a place where all the society laws are working.