05-19-2022, 05:15 AM
Responding to Kalakoa: Your ideas of what current libraries are, and what services they provide seems to be quite dated. It might be useful for you to look at the state library system's website, and see the multitude of formats used to provide information, the services provided, and what anchors the branches are for their communities.
Your comment "a climate-controlled building for paper books seems like a bad investment" is off the mark. Pahoa Library does not have air conditioning. During both the 2014 and 2018 eruptions, the paper books did just fine, as the evolving collection had for the previous 50 years of the library's existence. It was the public and staff computers, and the wifi equipment , that suffered extensive damage from the highly acidic vog. The library system's IT techs who kept the only free 24/7 wifi in the area up and running, especially during the entire 2018 eruption, worked above and beyond requirements and expectations, never once using the excuse of "waiting for parts from the mainland".
Your comment "a climate-controlled building for paper books seems like a bad investment" is off the mark. Pahoa Library does not have air conditioning. During both the 2014 and 2018 eruptions, the paper books did just fine, as the evolving collection had for the previous 50 years of the library's existence. It was the public and staff computers, and the wifi equipment , that suffered extensive damage from the highly acidic vog. The library system's IT techs who kept the only free 24/7 wifi in the area up and running, especially during the entire 2018 eruption, worked above and beyond requirements and expectations, never once using the excuse of "waiting for parts from the mainland".