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My town votes 50/50 Republican/Democrat, yet our newly rebuilt library is filled with lib/women oriented non-fiction and contemporary women’s pulp fiction. They no longer even have paper sets of encyclopedias. It’s not possible to learn much about science or technology there anymore - they weeded much of that out during the remodeling.

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amanaplanacanal 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They are likely stocking the books their users are asking for. If you ask for something else I'm sure they can get that too.

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fuzzer371 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> They no longer even have paper sets of encyclopedias

Honest question from someone who has never actually had to use a paper encyclopedia. Do they still print paper encyclopedias?

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grandempire 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s safe to say the market who purchases books is women, under the age of 40.

	▲	alabastervlog 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Women reading mostly romance and the occasional “young adult” fantasy book is practically the only market left for authors, if they want to sell fiction.

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dpkirchner 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Bummer. Do you have to go far to find another library that has paper encyclopedias when you need to look up some texts?

	▲	9x39 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Science and tech is obsolete like the format of paper encyclopedias? (It isn't.) It's worth considering if a short-term focus on stocking fad romantasy comes at the long-term expense of a body of knowledge. Consider the classic value of college degrees - they're (largely) not optimized for fad pop knowledge or even vocational skills, instead optimizing for a rounded body of knowledge considered to be broadly 'educated'.

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thenayr 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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