@HebrideanHecate @Gnomeshatecheese @MandyJane Public libraries were one of the Victorian philanthropic social reform ventures, in their case to promote literacy for all and to remove wealth barriers to education, that we're now supposed to call *colonial* or *white supremacy* or whatever. We may sneer now at Victorians (and we may have some good reasons to) but we're now in a *baby out with the bathwater* mentality that cannot see good where it exists or existed. I remember teaching about Victorians to KS3, and the other teacher told her class that Victorians made children go up chimneys and wanted slaves. I had to explain to her that Victorians were the people who tried to change that culture, not perpetuate it.
I went to a primary school in which the houses were all social reformers (Shaftsbury, Barnardo, Fry and Keller) and the headmaster wanted us to know that the actions of an individual could make real change in a world. Lord knows what he'd be thought of now.
Libraries now seem to be less about promoting literacy and more about promoting adherence to the *current thing* and the problem with the *current thing* is that who knows what it will be tomorrow.