I don’t know how we’re still having this conversation but somehow, even now, in this, the year 2018, we’re still having to defend libraries. Even if a person doesn’t get why libraries are important, or even if they are weirdly, staunchly anti-library, you would think that by now they would have learned not to share that opinion online. Because Library Twitter is one of the smartest, most articulate, and straight-up vicious communities in the entire internet and they do not hold back.
Remember last year, when a NY Observer columnist tweeted out his terrible opinion that public libraries should be closed because “no one goes to libraries anymore”? And how within like a day he had to apologize to the 110,000 library users that had tweeted at him to let him know how wrong he was?
this is by far the best thing that happened on twitter in twenty-seventeen. pic.twitter.com/QhIj4eSPB7
— the library haunter 🦉 (@SketchesbyBoze) December 27, 2017
Yet that wasn’t enough to stop Forbes from publishing an article by contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas, advocating for libraries to be replaced by Amazon stores. Seriously.
As Mourdoukoutas sees it, libraries are unnecessary because places like Starbucks have replaced them as a space where people can go and use the internet and hang out for free. He’s conveniently ignoring a lot here. Like the fact that libraries have computers and wifi for people to use, while Starbucks and similar spaces require you to bring your own laptop, and there is the matter of making purchases at the coffeeshop.
Or the fact that libraries are open spaces for many who are not comfortable (or even allowed) in a place like Starbucks, like the elderly or the homeless. The thoughtlessness of suggesting Starbucks are great alternative to libraries just a few months after Starbucks made headlines for having customers arrested for the crime of existing while black is staggering.
the fact that folks have had to spend valuable time and energy explaining and defending the function of libraries makes me sick
— wikipedia brown (@eveewing) July 23, 2018
why would you tear down something so good and so beneficial to so many people just because you can’t comprehend the worth of the only public space we have left that’s not after our money? pic.twitter.com/L7dM17yJ6F
— the library haunter 🦉 (@SketchesbyBoze) July 23, 2018
It’s bad enough to suggest that a source of free books and other forms of media could and should be replaced by a private business that sells all of those things, but Mourdoukoutas is clearly ignorant of all the other services a library offers beyond books, DVDs, and free wifi. Luckily, Twitter is here to inform him of the many benefits he overlooked.
Seniors pay 200 or more to have someone do taxes, but the library does it for free. Free movies during the summer for kids. They make ice cream and crafts. During storms and emergencies they function as shelters. It’s almost like my tax dollars bring safety and joy to people.
— DamagedNotion (@Damagednotion) July 23, 2018
We provide computer and software training. We assist in job searches and all of the resources needed to do so. And in many rural communities, we are often the only source of internet access. In urban areas as well sometimes. Plus thousands of other services we offer.
— Ella Disenchanted (@McTestaInc) July 23, 2018
7. Workshops. Art exhibitions. Life drawing classes. Book signings. Free city-centre walking tours. The billions of things libraries offer which aren’t just books.
— Allie (@alicejkiff) July 23, 2018
1) Amazon is capitalism. Libraries are love.@PMourdoukoutas @Forbes
— Drunkest Librarian (@DrunkestLibrary) July 22, 2018
2) Libraries doggedly protect your private information. Amazon flaunts your private information. (“Since you bought hemorrhoid cream, you may be interested in an enema too!”)@PMourdoukoutas @Forbes
— Drunkest Librarian (@DrunkestLibrary) July 22, 2018
4) Children’s Librarians are experts in early literacy. Like teachers. Should teachers be replaced with Amazon employees?@PMourdoukoutas @Forbes
— Drunkest Librarian (@DrunkestLibrary) July 22, 2018
aside from being useful, which they demonstrably are, libraries are noble and beautiful spaces
— Elizabeth Bruenig (@ebruenig) July 23, 2018
This is the only proper response to that terrible “Amazon should take over public libraries” piece in Forbes: pic.twitter.com/Jl7NJZ5ZRI
— Maris Kreizman (@mariskreizman) July 22, 2018
After that asshat tweet from Andre Walker last year, a library student going by the accurate handle of The Angriest Librarian (aka Alex Halpern) went viral with a scathing takedown thread. He, too, seems bewildered that we’re still having this conversation.
Are you out of your fucking mind https://t.co/ROcoCkPLGZ
— The Angriest Librarian Again (@HalpernAlex) July 22, 2018
We are out here just trying to survive, we are out here trying to provide what services we can to the people who need them and you want to take that little bit of public space left and give it to motherfucking amazon so you can save three bucks a month?
— The Angriest Librarian Again (@HalpernAlex) July 22, 2018
Mourdoukoutas tried to “clarify” his argument on Twitter, pointing out the thing everybody already knows: that libraries aren’t really “free,” as they’re paid for with tax dollars.
Buddy it’s time to give this one up. https://t.co/HboLdmKf2Z
— The Angriest Librarian Again (@HalpernAlex) July 22, 2018
No, let us clarify something. Your article is poorly researched, I’ll-informed, and fairly ignorant.
— EveryLibrary (@EveryLibrary) July 23, 2018
taxes are the goddamn price we pay to live in a fucking society you “I’ve got mine” relic of bad times and dumber ideas.
— The Angriest Librarian Again (@HalpernAlex) July 22, 2018
Hey dumbass: I’m a real librarian, your take is shit, Amazon costs taxpayers BILLIONS in subsidies, and I bet I could kick your ass in a fight @PMourdoukoutas https://t.co/eQ31gf34wF
— dolly (@loather) July 22, 2018
Let me clarify something. If the *only* thing my local library did was help a domestic violence victim find information on the nearest shelter, I’d gladly pay double what you in taxes a year. And yeah, libraries do that sort of thing.
— Marziah Karch (@marziah) July 23, 2018
Maybe @Forbes doesn’t like that you can download their magazine free with your #SF library card. https://t.co/vqQk1BDMZE
— SF Public Library (@SFPublicLibrary) July 22, 2018
It would be great if major publications like Forbes weren’t giving a platform to the opinion that local public libraries be replaced with for-profit businesses with a history of invading our privacy and mistreating their employees. But as long as they are, at least Library Twitter will be there to shut that sort of ignorance down.
As a public librarian, seeing the nation rise to eloquently and critically blow your rationales to smithereens is heartwarming.
— 🌻Meredith Snepp🌻 (@m_snepp) July 23, 2018
normally when everyone is tweeting angrily about the same dumb article, I get burned out on it within a few hours but I hope we spend the whole next week collectively talking about how great libraries are and how shitty the anti-library article is
— Tom McAllister (@t_mcallister) July 22, 2018
Every so often someone tweets something stupid about closing libraries and the outpouring of love and support for libraries in response makes me think we just might be okay after all. (Also we might not, the guy from the apprentice is literally the president)
— The Angriest Librarian Again (@HalpernAlex) July 22, 2018
While I have you here and you are passionately mad about the defense of libraries, please consider donating to the @ALALibrary’s Spectrum scholarship fund promoting diversity in librarianship. https://t.co/34ps8hGZ92
— The Angriest Librarian Again (@HalpernAlex) July 22, 2018
(image: Disney)
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