Well, for us bookworms, access to the library is also a major factor, and most of those are closed! But yes, the social factor is crucial. Or, was crucial before 2020. It's fascinating watching them shoot themselves in their feet like this, but it requires a fair amount of stoic detachment on my part not to get very frustrated at how much damage it is doing.
I am pissed off at the people running the Theosophical Society library. They're still closed a year plus after the initial "two weeks to flatten the curve", truly acting the part of the salary class nitwit. The public library system around here, supposedly the best in the nation, had severe shortcomings long before the Scamdemic. I remember wanting to read The Grapes of Wrath over a decade ago and being told it was only available if I could wait 3 days for an interlibrary loan. Ridiculous!
Public libraries seem to always be terrible. It's one thing to lack the really obscure stuff, but the classics? Surely a public library should at least have those.
I was always extremely happy about the fact that I had access to two university libraries here, which actually meant something. Now both are closed by order of the province, and one is fighting to stay closed. The only reason the other isn't is, once again, because of Quebec: they issued an order declaring libraries an essential service and forbidding them from closing. So now, the bilingual university here is unwilling to fight to remain closed, because they need to be able to recruit Francophone students.
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I was always extremely happy about the fact that I had access to two university libraries here, which actually meant something. Now both are closed by order of the province, and one is fighting to stay closed. The only reason the other isn't is, once again, because of Quebec: they issued an order declaring libraries an essential service and forbidding them from closing. So now, the bilingual university here is unwilling to fight to remain closed, because they need to be able to recruit Francophone students.