I sympathize with the author. My nonprofit is working with our local library to provide coding bootcamp for anyone who wants to learn (for free). We've been piloting for 3 months in San Jose and the whole experience has been very eyeopening to me.
One of our students, Mani, couldn't afford a laptop. He would go to the library when it opens to work on a website and hopes that he could one day make ad revenue. He was able to find books, borrow a laptop, and learn by himself. There are many people like him who finds solace in the library because it is one of the few places left that doesn't try to sell you something. At the library, they feel welcome.
In the past 3 months I've seen more diversity than I have ever seen in my career at Silicon Valley. People of all races and all walks of life come to learn and it was an amazing sight watching college students learn and teach alongside with adults making a career switch.
I love the library and what it represents: A non judgemental place that welcomes everybody to come learn. It would break my heart to see it become part of an organization that optimizes for profit margins. Here's the webarchive link to the original Forbes article: https://web.archive.org/web/20180722160053/https://www.forbe...
Thank you for linking to the Forbes piece. It's interesting that once deleted, it would have been impossible to read without the efforts of the good people at archive.org. It's interesting that deleting the op-ed effectively demonstrates another great value of libraries. Without them, the copyright holders can make it almost impossible to view anything they'd prefer you not see, even right in the middle of a public debate around said work.
The op-ed itself is also chillingly corporate-elitist, while simultaneously being childish. Let them eat cake and drink Starbucks.
This is really important - Starbuck's (mostly successful) attempts to become the central third space in city centers is almost definitely leading to class divides.
One of our students, Mani, couldn't afford a laptop. He would go to the library when it opens to work on a website and hopes that he could one day make ad revenue. He was able to find books, borrow a laptop, and learn by himself. There are many people like him who finds solace in the library because it is one of the few places left that doesn't try to sell you something. At the library, they feel welcome.
In the past 3 months I've seen more diversity than I have ever seen in my career at Silicon Valley. People of all races and all walks of life come to learn and it was an amazing sight watching college students learn and teach alongside with adults making a career switch.
I love the library and what it represents: A non judgemental place that welcomes everybody to come learn. It would break my heart to see it become part of an organization that optimizes for profit margins. Here's the webarchive link to the original Forbes article: https://web.archive.org/web/20180722160053/https://www.forbe...