The purpose of libraries has simply expanded. A lot of people do still use it for books, but this being an online forum there's likely a selection bias at play. People learn to go to the library when that's the main place they have access to stuff, often because purchasing or finding it digitally is out of the price-range. As a consequence, those big beautiful libraries in the nice part of town are often pretty empty but the cramped one near us poor folk is full of families and their kids every weekend.

But libraries offer so much more than books. They have digital services, often with access to computers (again, mostly used by those who can't afford a personal computer), and research assistance. Librarians know how to research and find sources and are an invaluable help when trying to find research on a topic. My local has community events where someone comes in and gives presentations or activities for kids often. Libraries are a community project that brings people together. Unfortunately, public libraries, being not for profit, don't have extensive funds so they don't have the reach they used to. Public sentiment has also turned away from libraries for a variety of reasons and in different ways. The capitalist-centric world-view lends to people's appreciation for owning things and improving your own station while shying away from improving the group condition. Libraries whole purpose is antithetical to that world-view, so they're ignored at best, actively fought against at worst.

This is, of course, an American centric rant, since that's where I am and can't speak to the conditions elsewhere.

When I was very young, my parents took me to the library to pick books to read because (a) I was reading a lot and (b) we didn't have much money. As I got older, my dad's business started doing very well, and I wasn't chewing though books as fast, so most books became gifts and the library was just a place to do research for school reports (no Internet then).

And that's just kind of what stuck with me - as an adult I've never really thought about it for pleasure reading, but it's nice to rediscover. My only concern is that I'm not really supporting the authors well, and I probably can afford to.