Last night while relaxing with my roommate and his girlfriend, they were talking about borrowing movies from the local public library. As an avid reader this caught my attention. I haven't thought about public libraries since I was a little kid.

Today I went to the one a few blocks from my house, got a free library card, and borrowed some books. I love reading, and having a free resource of books rather than having to buy them may be a life changer. I figure if my taxes go towards it, I might as well take advantage.

Anyone else use public libraries?

Not since the 90's. IMO they are a bit outdated, as just about everything you could want, can be found by searching the internet.

That said, I do have some fond memories of spending hours upon hours in the library reading through some of the books I found there. Nowadays that same thing can be accomplished at home, but unfortunately, you lose the experience of being there.

Not anymore. I remember in the early 90's I would go there and check out 4-5 books about Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists. That library was the main library of the city which is old and imposing with marble columns and whatnot. The serious ambiance of it all reminded me a lot of church. Like @BarretsFloyd said, most info can now be obtained from the net and with amazing convenience. The internet has really dampened a bit(or a lot) the library culture. In fact, in my city there has been a couple of little local libraries that have closed because few people visit them. Even bookstores like Barnes N' Noble closed in my area because of the same issue(and I live in a very famous congested metropolitan city) Furthermore, even music stores like Tower Records which was almost a tradition to buy music records/cds from, are now defunct.

Although I've noticed that libraries nowadays are trying to modernize everything in order to accommodate the new information era. People nowadays are more info savvy and libraries are doing their best to make going-to-the-library worthwhile again. I remember years back Barnes N' Noble bookstore once added a little and trendy cafe inside the bookstore in order to attract the new wave of social people and their laptops, but unfortunately, that didn't help in the end.

Earlier in the year i went into my local library, its handy when my computer goes down and i have to check e-mails, i founds some books i was wanting to read but werent on the shelves of local book shops, also they have information available on the internet but its usually through a pay portal, but if you go in its free.

I've not visited a public library in years. I like the idea of them very much. But my small town has no library. The nearest is some eleven miles away. That's too far for convenience for a retiree who nowadays drives to that town maybe once a week on errands plus occasional other days for medical or other appointments. Were one nearer by I might well use it.

We took my daughters to my small towns local library, walked around for 3 seconds and left. It is not an exaggeration on my part to say that I literally have more books in my own personal collection then that library did altogether(I'd estimate they had 500-750 books total, I have well over 1k). The nearest library of actual size is 40 minutes away, so not really worth going to unless we happen to be in that area for other reasons, and if we are there for other reasons, it's usually without the girls.

I used to back in the 90s.. but, since i prefer to own books so I can put them on one of my shelves, I haven't been to one in many years.. well, I did go into one once about a year ago on my way downtown, because it was the closest public building with a bathroom

I LOVE libraries!

When I was homeless a few years back, I lived in my car, the Library was Godsend! I'd read 3-6 books every couple of weeks

Libraries also have more than just books, these days. CDs, DVDs, and lots of local programs for kids and advlts alike seem to be the norm now.

And the best thing? It gets me out of the apartment

I've found a ton of great music through my local library.

Between my freshman year and until a year after I graduated (2008 to 2011), my only access to the internet was one hour at a time, once per business day, at my tiny cottage sized library in the small coastal town I lived near. I usually spent that whole hour on these forums. I also checked out a bunch of books from that library, lack of internet meant lots of time to spend reading books. I do miss the simplicity of having enough free time to spend 5 hours minimum reading a book every day.

I used to use the library a lot because it was the only way to be on the internet for any length of time. The free books didn't hurt either. I must have read our library's entire occult section by the time I was 17.

Now, having money, a kindle and easy access to Amazon or Project Gutenberg has made the library less important to me. I figure we should keep them all running just in case some penniless kid is inspired by reading old reference books and goes on to invent the cure for cancer.

I haven't visited any in recent months, but I used to borrow some books from time to time. Sometimes without even knowing what exactly I'd like to borrow, I'd just go to eg. fantasy section and walk by the shelves, picking up some novels till I'd find something interesting. I don't have any e-book reader, and e-books in general are not yet as popular and widespread in my country as they are in eg. US, so libraries are the way to go if I want to read a book, but no necessarily want to buy it.

In recent years, all public libraries in my district (about 16 libraries in 24 square km area) got modernized, there's just one card with bar-code which you can use in all nearby libraries, can log online to check what books are available and where, what you got borrowed and when you should return it and so on. It also made the librarian's work a bit easier, as previously they'd have to look in alphabetically sorted shelves for someone's card (so you had to register in each library separately).

I think public libraries are important in the history of American politics. Lately there has been some controversy about them providing internet access through Tor. For Americans I think they should try to keep them going as a public space with access to knowledge even if there is not one paper book there for financial reasons.

Libraries in Brazil are extremely rare, the closest thing we have here are the Bookshops who also allows you to read some of the books in the store and you can only read inside the store and it is actually very relaxing because the ambiance is quite relaxing. Conditionated Air, free coffee and tea and you can buy some cookies if you want.