Here’s a rhetorical question: In this day and age, what do we need libraries for? Won’t it be cheaper to buy everyone a smart phone and leave them to their own devices?

Cheaper, yes. Smarter, no.

In the old days, I went to the library to get books, find magazines from decades past, use reference materials that could not be checked out, type on typewriters, and make copies. Then, a physical footprint was absolutely necessary, a building needed to store the wisdom of the ages, be a place offering refugee to slick lawyer and humble homeless person alike.

Same today.

Libraries are portals, with sa...