This comment more than anything shows how divorced tech thinking can be from reality.
>> In all seriousness, this [the concept of libraries] doesn't scale
1. It scaled perfectly well for 3 centuries with no reason not to continue scaling with the requisite funding. It could be argued that the concept of a library has scaled since 2600 BC. It scales for almost every town in the Western world and every single University, College and School worldwide. Beyond food/clean water sources and a medical centre the next municipal institution offered to struggling African and Southern American communities is often a School/Library with books.
In the West, demand is tempered by the need to physically go to a Library to source the media for consumption. Some might see this as a barrier to entry for certain customers; good. It is not a barrier to scaling though, it is a net benefit that makes the customer flow manageable.
A similar argument can be made against Amazon. You physically need to access the internet? You need a computer or mobile device? You need a payment card? You need an address? Ha. Too many barriers.
The only barrier to a library is physically arriving at the library and in some cases mobile libraries will come to you with an RV packed with media for free consumption.
Only a person blinded by the current SV-inspired business models can look at something in existence, already scaling and say according to me I do not believe this idea scales
2. Since it is impossible for any individual to consume the sum total of media at the same time the system has built in redundancy guaranteeing it scales effectively. IE You cannot physically check out and consume every piece of media therefore unlimited copies are not required to be stored. Data analysis yields the optimum level of media storage further improved by aggregating analysed lending habits.
3. Libraries are not weakened by greater public interest, they are strengthened by it. The demise of the social library has been largely brought about by the ubiquitousness of online content (including piracy). If those sources dried up overnight library use would explode in growth and Governments would double their budgets.
The idea that if libraries suddenly gained too many customers they would be shut down is ludicrous with absolutely no credible reasoning.
>> In all seriousness, this [the concept of libraries] doesn't scale
1. It scaled perfectly well for 3 centuries with no reason not to continue scaling with the requisite funding. It could be argued that the concept of a library has scaled since 2600 BC. It scales for almost every town in the Western world and every single University, College and School worldwide. Beyond food/clean water sources and a medical centre the next municipal institution offered to struggling African and Southern American communities is often a School/Library with books.
In the West, demand is tempered by the need to physically go to a Library to source the media for consumption. Some might see this as a barrier to entry for certain customers; good. It is not a barrier to scaling though, it is a net benefit that makes the customer flow manageable.
A similar argument can be made against Amazon. You physically need to access the internet? You need a computer or mobile device? You need a payment card? You need an address? Ha. Too many barriers.
The only barrier to a library is physically arriving at the library and in some cases mobile libraries will come to you with an RV packed with media for free consumption.
Only a person blinded by the current SV-inspired business models can look at something in existence, already scaling and say according to me I do not believe this idea scales
2. Since it is impossible for any individual to consume the sum total of media at the same time the system has built in redundancy guaranteeing it scales effectively. IE You cannot physically check out and consume every piece of media therefore unlimited copies are not required to be stored. Data analysis yields the optimum level of media storage further improved by aggregating analysed lending habits.
3. Libraries are not weakened by greater public interest, they are strengthened by it. The demise of the social library has been largely brought about by the ubiquitousness of online content (including piracy). If those sources dried up overnight library use would explode in growth and Governments would double their budgets.
The idea that if libraries suddenly gained too many customers they would be shut down is ludicrous with absolutely no credible reasoning.
Source: History.