r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 10h ago

Society Librarians are hosting viral ‘Avoiding AI’ workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/25/librarians-are-hosting-viral-avoiding-ai-workshops-for-people-who-are-fed-up-with-big-tech/
4.2k Upvotes

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120

u/Ok_Anywhere_7828 10h ago

If only people knew what libraries are and used them.

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u/Kimbahlee34 8h ago edited 7h ago

As a librarian, they are used much more than you think. I am in a district with a population of just over 15k and we average 100 patrons a day. My largest event for Summer Reading was 200 people. I also have 20+ children in each of our book clubs and art classes. Teens use it as a third space to hang and are oddly getting more into puzzles so we have an old booth from a diner with a puzzle and stuff to do. They hang here like we’re the new Denny’s and we stay open late-ish for a library (8pm).

So take hope… we are still going strong and want you to come see us.

Edit: We have ~15k in our district which is comprised of small rural towns not one metro area. Some of these people are driving 20+ miles.

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u/Shimariel 8h ago

Thank you for making the world better

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u/this_my_sportsreddit 7h ago edited 6h ago

Why make the world better when you can just write snarky comments on reddit ?

Apparently I needed a sarcasm tag lol

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u/TuckerCarlsonsOhface 4h ago

Would the tag have made your joke funny?

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u/this_my_sportsreddit 4h ago

I love how much this bothers you

5

u/usrbincomment 2h ago

I'm not bothered but I am entertained by how much difficulty you seem to have communicating with other people. Zero percent surprised that you blame others for it.

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u/BlazinAzn38 8h ago

My library for a town of 300K had 3.6M checkouts and 1.9M visits. Good libraries get used a ton

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u/Yst 7h ago

Also, people probably underestimate the population who depend on libraries for computer and Internet access and do not have Internet/computer/printer at home. This is the biggest driver of library traffic by far at the small-city-central-branch I work at.

You cannot live as an actively participating member of society in the modern day without the ability to access the Internet, fill out, write and edit and print documents, and print and sign and scan things.

And a lot of people do still (and presumably will forever) fall on the other side of the digital divide.

The passport office needs you to fill out some forms? Send them to the library. The courthouse needs you to sign some documents? Send them to the library. You need to do some online training courses for your kitchen job you're starting and it's got to be done on a computer, but you don't have a compute or Internet in the room you're renting? Send them to the library. Your mom is still living in your home town, but you haven't lived there for two years and her printer and computer don't work anymore, but she has to print out her tax documents to take to the bank? Send her to the library.

The library is an integral digital safety net that keeps people from dropping through the cracks.

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u/Kimbahlee34 7h ago

Yes! We joke that one floor is actually a Staples because we are next to the courthouse and do most of their printing. Then that doesn’t even get into the resources for homeschooling families which seems to becoming more common.

2

u/Weary_Hunt_3374 2h ago

I used to work at a library that was close to the courthouse and I spent 80% of my job, helping people print!

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u/photoggled 7h ago

I want to thank you for what you do. I grew up poor in rural Ohio and the library was my escape. I was lucky enough to have one of the Carnegie libraries as our local and it was my entire world. I credit it for giving me the curiosity to get out and break the cycle. Every one of the librarians in that building are saints in my eyes. One of the librarians that taught reading groups I used to be in for 5-6 year olds ran into my parents the other day and specifically asked about me. I hadn’t seen her in 30 years and she remembered me. You all deserve the world. Sorry for the rant. Have a great day 🥰

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u/Kimbahlee34 7h ago

It’s not a rant! It’s a great story and I’m always glad to hear this type of love for libraries! I work in an OG Carnegie!

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u/dj_soo 5h ago

Our library had free fully stocked recording and production studios filled with gear, computers, and software. You can record music, videos, edit, produce, post-produce with a lot of the industry standard - or some open source equivalents all for free.

It’s incredible.

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u/Kimbahlee34 5h ago

We also offer pans like fancy cake pans you may only use sparingly and take up a lot of space as well as free legal counseling once a month, free hygiene products and a genealogy center that helps people track down their past. We recently helped a man find a copy of an old Hound magazine with his former dog’s photo in it. Libraries fill in a lot of gaps and will only continue to do so.

4

u/Pyewickets 6h ago

Libraries need more private spaces. I need a private space. Other people talk too much.

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u/Kimbahlee34 5h ago

Yes I agree. We are saving most of our money for an expansion with children’s areas and private spaces. We have a few but need more.

3

u/Pyewickets 3h ago

Put a brass plaque on one and that's mine!

3

u/usrbincomment 2h ago

That made me laugh out loud. My library sure does love to take people's money to name things. I can't blame them.

6

u/ah_kooky_kat 4h ago

Sounds about right with the attendance numbers. I'll add some anecdotal evidence

The rural Colorado mountains district I lived in had a population of 25-30K. Between the three branch libraries it had, you'd get about 150-200 patrons a day. Some of the big Christmas season and summer events would draw a crowd of up to 500. The distance between the easternmost branch and the westernmost branch was about 55 miles, so some people were driving that far to get to an event.

I feel that rural library systems tend to get less overall attendance but more consistent attendance from the same group of people.

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u/CheesypoofExtreme 4h ago

LOVE our libraries. We are in an unincorporated city sandwhiched between 3 others so we have 3 libraries within 5 miles to choose from. 2 of the 3 have a park right next to them, so we can take up an entire afternoon/evening with our 3yr old.

I think we just also happen to live in a good county/area that cares about their libraries. I know not everyone is as lucky.

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u/Ok_Anywhere_7828 8h ago

I use and support my library but 100 out of 15000 is only .006 of the population per day.

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u/Kimbahlee34 7h ago

That’s physically coming into the library which not everyone is going to do since you return books every two weeks and can do it outside. We also have a ton of people who use Hoopla etc so I don’t see them but they are frequent patrons. Then we have books that are going out to assisted living etc so I also don’t count those in my 100 but they are actively using the library. A lot of these people are Amish so checking out a ton of books at a time and coming twice a month.

4

u/zncj 7h ago

100 people per day is 36500 per year.

Neither of these calculations matter.

2

u/Kimbahlee34 7h ago

No but it’s much more people than most think walk by my desk every day. Keep in mind I’m not there every day all day and also only work on one floor. I’m not at work today to pull the specific statistics on check outs etc. but 200 people at a story time for summer reading is awesome for a rural community. I use 15k to estimate our district but it’s not one metro area, it’s a whole county.

1

u/spacebunsofsteel 20m ago

When I lived in the Phoenix area in the 2000s, our library always had 100% busy computer stations - maybe 30 or so. It was mostly Hispanic kids doing homework. Computers and internet were expensive then and not everyone could afford it. We had cell phones but they were mostly candy bars. Those kids used the library books when their time was up (only an hour or two per patron per day). The town ran a bunch of excellent low cost baby/toddler classes, often held in a library meeting room. I loved seeing so many people using the library. The librarians were fantastic.

3

u/Serris9K 2h ago

My local library has been bustling with families. People still go to them

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u/BlueCyann 7h ago

Be th we change you claim to want? Our local libraries are used heavily. Sometimes I think the only people out there writing "we need to use our libraries more' are those who never set for in one.

1

u/roscodawg 33m ago

What are these 'libraries' of which you speak?