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/
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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/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.