As a Helsinki resident, I agree with much of what you say about Oodi. And in spite of the other commenter claiming "everyone" loves it, I don't nor do many of my peers of an intellectual bent, mad about books. This building only disappoints us.

But here is the thing: in Finland academic libraries are open to the general public. Someone wanting to immerse themselves in actual books, or work in silence, have a wealth of options in downtown Helsinki: the University of Helsinki main library, the Finnish National Library, the Finnish Literature Society's library, the Research Institute for Languages of Finland's library, and more. So, if Oodi ended up being a plain old social third space instead of a "real library", that didn't take anything away from Helsinki residents.

▲

cxr 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> that didn't take anything away from Helsinki residents

That's the real problem I have with the false promises of places like Austin's Central Library and other Oodi-likes.

The biggest threat to libraries and the social goods they're ostensibly designed to produce are not really the people trying to tear them down to tighten budgets. It's way more pernicious than that:

The biggest threat is the people trying to tear them down and replace them with places like this.

▲

aifhyahdhd 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> So, if Oodi ended up being a plain old social third space instead of a "real library", that didn't take anything away from Helsinki residents.

Taxes and corruption.

▲

TFNA 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Nah, I might be a hermit and misanthrope who prefers books to people and hates crotch goblins running around, but I can still see the value for general society of a third space open to everyone, young and old. Especially when many people are hurting these days from lack of IRL contact, and the alternative would be expensive for-pay locations like coffee joints or pubs.

▲

aifhyahdhd 5 hours ago | parent [-]

[flagged]

	▲	TFNA 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Your two posts here evince a lack of understanding of Finnish culture (cultural subsidy, and the creation of state jobs for cultural workers, is not particularly controversial here) and the particular challenges that Finnish society has to deal with (yes, people could do frivolous stuff at home, but the point is to get them outside doing stuff with other people). The films I have seen screened in Oodi are often serious, edifying stuff. It is no different from the publically funded cinematheques that have existed in many European countries for long decades now. Fear of homeless people taking over the bookable facilities is completely ignorant of how they are apportioned.