10mo ago

A friend of mine shared this receipt from her local library which shows how much money she's saved by using it.

Anti-Corporate Movement @lemmy.giftedmc.com

haui @lemmy.giftedmc.com

10mo ago

82 comments

So she stole $60000 from the months of hard working publishers and $122 from authors
- $3 from the printing factory, 13¢ from the author and $118 from the fucken publisher
Regarding libraries, this is such a socialist idea, that enriches society and educates the people. I wonder why no one thought to defund them, because think of the lost profits for companies like Amazon, etc. /s
- Republicans absolutely have tried and are trying to defund librairies.
  
  And have succeeded. In the stupidest ways. I can't find the article since there are so many fucking attempts, but there was one where they got rid of the library's funding in the only public room in town big enough to hold the meeting on getting rid of the library's funding: the library's meeting room.
Does this include any "library of things?" Because at my library I can check tools, thermal image cameras, tables, board games and all sorts of other things.
- Where are you where you have those options? Id love to be able to checkout tools at the library.
  
  Not poster but northeast US in the more populated areas seem to have better stocked libraries. Mine has music, movies, board games, and a whole bunch of random equipment for stuff like research or cooking or building. Microscopes and knitting sets and pasta makers, construction equipment etc.
  
  This is pretty common in most blue states.
  
  Illinois, in a suburb northwest of Chicago.
  They have so much to borrow totally free. So many people think of libraries as just books, but they often are so much more.
- I’ve been to libraries where you can borrow music CDs, movie DvDs, and even games such as Nintendo Switch cartridges. My local library does DvDs but not the other stuff.
- I don't know whether she takes advantage of them, but that library definitely has a LoT.
Nice.
Anyone who has ever suggested defunding or closing libraries should be hanged at the stake.
- Or forced to read their opinions, out-loud, to their peers.
- Burned from the neck until dead
Patron status is ok
Glad your friend is doing well! Send my regards.
How much money is she spending that just the savings add up to 60'000? Or is that just an error and that's the joke?
- It’s the price of the books she would have bought otherwise.
  
  Oh so just one grad school text book.
  
  But she wouldn’t have?
  Before Netflix I wasn’t buying hundreds of DVDs per year. It doesn’t make sense to claim that use of a service, even a free one, constitutes “savings” based on hypothetical behavior where you would have bought all the content individually at list price.
- She also has a kid and has been going with the kid to the library since he was born to check out a bunch of books every week. He's in grade school now... I want to say he's 10?
  
  I can go through 4 or more books a week depending on their length. I read a fuck ton. Using the Libby app to have books sent to my kindle automatically has really changed my life. Being able to just grab my kindle at any moment, read for 15 minutes while I wait for something, as well as an hour or two at the end of the night. It adds up quickly. I will say that I read a lot of "lighter" fare, so I can breeze through without much issue. If I get into something more heavy or some dense non-fiction it will slow down considerably.
She must read a book a day or only borrow gold plated books. 7k past year? If a book cost 20 dollars thats 350 books!
- Libraries also have movies and games!
  Also a lot of libraries have other stuff you can check out! Tools, sewing machine, printer, photo scanner etc!
  We scanned hundreds of old photos in minutes with the thousand dollar value equipment at our library totally for free! It was really cool! Ours has all kinds of equipment for converting old media to digital.
  Plus these huge satellite maps of our city from the past, it's like a 3.5'x3ft book of aerial photos. Idk what you'd need that for, but it was fun to look through them!
- Going by Amazon, hardcover averages $26.75 and paperback is $22.30
- It seems feasible if you don't imagine they're all big novels. A lot of nonfiction you might borrow several of in one visit and not read front to back. Think recipe books, handicrafts, anything along those lines. Could also be smaller things like children's books, poetry collections, etc., or some of the books were unusually expensive.
I also don't pay for books, arrrr
- Do you buy a copy when you find that you actually liked the book you pirated?
  
  I literally send authors the average cost of money for their book to their patreon with notes telling them I would've paid their publisher if I could've gotten a DRM-free .epub after enjoying the copy I got on zlib.
  
  if I can afford it, yeah
- Did you find the one piece?
Too many people sleep on libraries, they have all sorts of shit from music to movies on top of all the books, magazines, microfiche, etc.
- Just got a library card a few months ago. Had one when I was a kid and forgot how great it was. Not only do you get access to a huge amount of books, music, magazines, they also have ebooks. I don't even have to leave the house to get something to read. Just download it on my epaper reader. Plus: never again late fees because the license just expires after the rental time is over.
I'm more impressed with all the shelf space she saved by returning those physical books.
so what you're saying is the library IS tracking everything she reads conspiracy music intensifies
Qbittorrent should add this
69 69
coincidence? >I think not!<
Wait, not every library does this?
Regardless they mildly bother me because they use the MSRP from when the books were new, not the actual price people pay for used books (which is what library books are).
I don't buy video games anymore. The day of release I check the library site and they always have a few copies of the latest game. You get them for 1-3 weeks at a time and you can check em back out if you didn't finish
Seems like a bad idea to point this out. You’re just giving more ammo to conservatives and media conglomerates that this hurts business and is “socialism”.
- They stopped caring about money in legislation when they realized they don't need to hide their grifts anymore. As long as they keep believing the library is for WASPs we'll be fine.

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