What good are public libraries?

A library used to be one of the first things to be established by any town that wished to call itself advanced. Of late, spending on the library is one of the first things a town cuts back.

Many a mayor faces fiscal dilemmas such as those that once prompted Springfield's to muse about closing Lincoln Library to save money. Library Systems & Services, the Maryland-based for-profit firm, became the fifth-largest library system in the country by managing public libraries in several states for cities and library districts eager to cut costs, mainly by shedding employees and their pension obligations. The for-profit library may seem like a new trend, but in fact it merely returns public libraries to their roots. Springfield's first libraries were private subscription libraries based on the same model used by Sam's Club. The most successful of these was the Springfield Library Association, which was incorporated in 1865 and opened in 1869. It sold shares to members of the public, in return for which the buyer got the right to use the facility and to vote for its directors; the non-shareholder could get in for a $5 annual fee.