In rural Australia in the 1940s, my mother had rocks thrown at her and was branded a 'communist' because her father, a school headmaster, advocated for establishing a public library.
In the Canadian province where I now reside, the Catholic Church controlled libraries -- and thus access to information -- until the 1960s.
We forget how recent the democratisation of knowledge is -- how transformative such institutions were and how hard-won.
We should not part with them easily.
There is a term 'use it or lose it' if libraries are public funded, then people need to use them or the funding could be cut as those who make decisions see lack of footfall and direct funding elsewhere.
So visit your library, even if it is for 1 hour a week to read the newspaper or find a book, or anything, that footfall count may make a difference to how the library maintains funding to stay open.
