Amazon replacing libraries is ridiculous

Everyone probably knows by now that Amazon is coming to the West Plains area – unless you are living under a rock.

But that isn’t the real reason why I bring up the powerhouse company. On Saturday, July 21, Forbes posted quite the controversial article with the headline “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money.”

Yikes.

The backlash from the article was so extreme that Forbes actually deleted the piece from online. So if you go on their website, you cannot read the actual article anymore.

This is how a representative for Forbes responded:

“Forbes advocates spirited dialogue on a range of topics, including those that often take a contrarian view,” a Forbes spokesperson said in a statement. “Libraries play an important role in our society. This article was outside of this contributor’s specific area of expertise, and has since been removed.”

In the article, the author argued that local libraries are not useful anymore with the evolution of Amazon books and Netflix to rent movies. He said if the libraries closed, taxpayers would save some money and Amazon could open bookstores instead to provide communities with physical books.

Now I think this is one of the dumbest things I have heard because libraries are an essential part to a community and it just cannot be replaced by Amazon. Not everything can be replaced by the online shopping phenomenon, especially libraries.

The library is not just a place where people can check out books. It is a building that holds gatherings every day and provides opportunities to the community that an Amazon place would not.

For example, at the Cheney and Airway Heights libraries they offer a GED completion class that people can go there for classes to complete their high school education. This is quite the process to have people come in to teach the courses and help the students out. I am guessing Amazon would not be offering something like that to the community.

Another example is that the library holds entertainment options for the kids during the school year and the summer time. In our areas, there is a Lego Club along with Storytime hours for certain ages. People can enjoy these amenities even without checking out a book because the organization has so many options.

I remember being a kid and visiting the library especially during the summer time was just so exciting to go pick out a book to read for the week. I may not visit as much as I used to, but I still like knowing that I can visit whenever I need or want to.

I am not the only one that was against this article and some critics have pointed out that the communities that would be the hardest hit by libraries closing would be the lower income families. Libraries provide free computer and internet access for students and people who can’t afford it to be at their home.

Also with the argument that it would save taxpayers money, a Tax Policy Center researcher said that if public libraries were around the country and all funding were to be divided up among Americans, every person would get about $36 back.

Now I don’t know about you, but I think it is worth $36 to keep libraries open.

Grace Pohl can be reached at [email protected].