Library - Educational center? Tell me about it

I think libraries are a very important part of a community. Public libraries offer a number of services such as monthly book discussions, programs for children and mini courses to learn about the internet. Here where I live the services of the library are free except for photocopies which are charged at a nominal price. The library offers free Internet Access, Word Processing and more. You can borrow, books, cds and dvds for free. Libraries are a great resource for every one no matter what background they are. I often see homeless people in my neighbourhood library reading quietly. Yes, I think it is right that our Government supports libraries and I hope they will increase support so the libraries can offer more services.

I use our public libraries, but only for books. I have internet access at home, and rent DVDs through the mail, so those services aren't useful to me. However, they are invaluable to many people, so I do think it's been a logical step for the libraries to offer them. Libraries are, unfortunately, severely underfunded and have had to resort to charging for some of their services, selling parts of their collections, and purchasing fewer books. I've noticed that most of the books they purchase lately are the ones that have wide commercial appeal. This does not always enhance their collection, and is frustrating to those of us who look for better literature to read. I do believe that libraries should be an important part of education, but if the trend of lowering the literary standard continues, they will end up being just another mass market outlet.