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I've spent lots of time at the public library and I've never seen this, though, I'm not surprised. For better or worse, the public library brings refuge to the the most vulnerable people in our population.
Yeah, the library is definitely a wonderful institution for everyone! I did get a chance to support some wonderful people who wouldn't have had any support otherwise.
I don't wanna sound like I lacked any compassion or understanding. I wouldn't have survived many years doing that job otherwise. I was just focusing on the prompt. But the "carer's fatigue" was REAL.
It wasn't all bad though! For example: While I couldn't/wouldn't personally touch anybody's computers, I did help two people with really old laptops switch to Linux Mint, and they LOVED IT. So that was really cool! (I kept wanting to run a clinic for this and admin just kinda ignored me to shut me down)
But at the same time, it's clear in the U.S at least, the library is often positioned as an ill-equipped bandaid to cover a gaping wound in a decayed and eviscerated social system. Libraries would be more pleasant for all with a working social safety net and more "third places" that were free to all to enioy.
Clearly in this case, libraries are expected to make up where underfunded schools utterly failed their students.
Employees trained to help with information are also called upon to be social workers, teachers, employment specialists, and even crisis management personnel in the most extreme cases, and are paid to be none of these things.
Of course private interests and their pet politicians are keen on destroying libraries like they did everything else, because free access to knowledge is dangerous to them. :)
So yeah, support your local library: The last place you can be without paying admission. ❤️
Exactly, I go to libraries because sometimes I need a place to sit down and do work and it's kind of sad what I have to see in the library. I see so many homeless people and it's all a result of the conditions we live in right now. There really is no other free 3rd place like the library.