<story><title>“The books will stop working.”</title><url>https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sp332</author><text>It took the richest guy in the world funding them like crazy to start them. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Andrew_Carnegie#3,000_public_libraries&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Andrew_Carnegie#3,000_public_l...&lt;/a&gt; The one in Philadelphia cost the equivalent of $15,000,000 - and that didn&amp;#x27;t include the land, operation, or maintenance.</text></item><item><author>blakesterz</author><text>Can you imagine someone trying to start public libraries if they didn&amp;#x27;t already exist now? I think it&amp;#x27;s safe to say it would never ever happen, at least in the US. Between lobbying and the general disdain for most things run by any type of government here, they&amp;#x27;d never have a chance.&lt;p&gt;Luckily we still have places that still purchase printed books (along with ebooks) and you can go borrow them any time and they never stop working.... just ignore the damage from fire, water, rips, loss, bed bugs... maybe they do actually stop working for other reasons now that I think about it :-)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sdegutis</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve found this website very useful:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.org&amp;#x2F;details&amp;#x2F;texts&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;archive.org&amp;#x2F;details&amp;#x2F;texts&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;My favorite part: It has &lt;i&gt;actual scans&lt;/i&gt; of centuries-old books taken from &lt;i&gt;many&lt;/i&gt; major libraries (NYPL etc).&lt;p&gt;I can read something &lt;i&gt;printed and published&lt;/i&gt; in the 18th&amp;#x2F;19th centuries, on my iPhone. And I often do.</text></comment>
<story><title>“The books will stop working.”</title><url>https://twitter.com/rdonoghue/status/1144011630197522432</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sp332</author><text>It took the richest guy in the world funding them like crazy to start them. &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Andrew_Carnegie#3,000_public_libraries&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Andrew_Carnegie#3,000_public_l...&lt;/a&gt; The one in Philadelphia cost the equivalent of $15,000,000 - and that didn&amp;#x27;t include the land, operation, or maintenance.</text></item><item><author>blakesterz</author><text>Can you imagine someone trying to start public libraries if they didn&amp;#x27;t already exist now? I think it&amp;#x27;s safe to say it would never ever happen, at least in the US. Between lobbying and the general disdain for most things run by any type of government here, they&amp;#x27;d never have a chance.&lt;p&gt;Luckily we still have places that still purchase printed books (along with ebooks) and you can go borrow them any time and they never stop working.... just ignore the damage from fire, water, rips, loss, bed bugs... maybe they do actually stop working for other reasons now that I think about it :-)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>inscionent</author><text>The one in Washington DC is now an Apple store.</text></comment>