|
Late to the thread, sorry.
Seems the pro-inflated price arguments come down to (and I paraphrase)
Libraries should not carry things anyone would actually want to read or listen to or watch - that's ENTERTAINMENT and the taxpayers shouldn't be paying for that. If they want it, they should be happy to be price-gouged for it.
Meh.
When I was a poor kid on the farm, I used to check out records (you know, those vinyl things). I started checking out things I already liked (certain current pop singers), but the fact that my library had those things, led me to explore their collection and that's where I discovered Beethoven and other classical works. I'd never have done it if my initial explorations of their collection hadn't included anything I already knew about.
Has no one here ever read a fiction book and that led them to explore a topic further? Saw something in a movie or TV show and had their curiosity stirred?
Culture is a continuum - it's quite often exposure to the 'low' that leads to the 'high'.
As to the argument that literacy is provided by schools and not libraries - that's absurd. Only if you very narrowly define 'literacy' as being able to read but not actually doing it.
Music and film are just a much a part of our culture as books - I really don't understand the disdain for them that's been expressed here.
|