Originally to my mother who is a bibliophile who loves libraries as much as a person can.
This question was posed to patrons of the library today. Can you imagine Seattle without its libraries? I can. It’s actually made very easy by SPL itself. My local library shut down on Jan 25, 2025 until “Late 2026”. My closest library is Green Lake, a 1.5 mile walk each way. If you only go to the library twice every 6 months like I do, that isn’t that big a deal. If you need the exercise or have a bus pass, you can just spend the time. But even when my library was open, I found it to be a pretty minor landmark. Because I have Suzzallo, Allen, Engineering library, Math library, Music library, East Asian library, and libraries I don’t even know about I go there. I’m kinda spoiled for libraries. I do use the online features of SPL quite a lot – the audiobook, an ebook here and there, Kanopy, the newspaper access, and the search feature.
This dystopian vision allows us to consider what kind of world we want to live in.
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