Back when I lived in a hippie commune with approximately 9 humans and 37 dogs, I biked to the library on a regular basis. It was an easy way to keep myself in reading material without spending all of my meager paycheck on books.
As I was leaving one day, I asked one of my roommates if she wanted me to pick up anything at the library for her. Her response: “Is it free?”
Is it free? Is it free?
Let’s pretend for a minute that it’s not completely weird and unbelievable that an adult human being could grow up in the United States without ever having learned the first thing (literally, the very first thing) about the public library. Let’s also set aside the fact that this particular person was an English major! I’ll just state, definitively and for the record:
Yes, the library is free, you darling fool. But it might not be for much longer. Let’s get into it.
Are libraries actually free?
Libraries are a godsend to poor and frugal people everywhere. They offer a truly staggering number of amazingly useful services. So I guess we forgive anyone who thinks they must cost money. For capitalism has trained thee well!
There are some rare exceptions, like private libraries (such as the member-supported Athenaeum in downtown Boston) or school libraries that require tuition for entry. But in general, public libraries in the United States are completely free to any and all users.
They’re just one of the many awesome social services you get for the cost of paying your taxes—like public parks, municipal animal shelters, and calendars of sexy firefighters holding adoptable animals. Wow, who knew membership in society came with such amazing perks?!
“As a taxpayer…”
I don’t know about you, but I hate paying for shit I don’t use. That’s why I’m an evangelical eater of leftovers and hater of subscription boxes full of random surprise crap.
So my affinity for the public library should come as no surprise! After all, my tax dollars are paying for it. Why would I go out and buy a book or pay for a streaming service when I’ve already paid for that stuff with my state taxes? Pay twice for the same product? No fucking thank you!
And actually, you don’t even necessarily have to be a taxpayer to participate in all the library has to offer! Nobody from the IRS will check your last tax return at the door. Children, homeless people, immigrants no matter their legal status, and temporary residents on work or student visas can all get library cards. Neat, right?
Libraries are so free that many of them are eliminating fines altogether to make sure money is never a barrier for anyone.
And yet there are people like my old roommate who live their lives completely oblivious of the miraculous properties of the public library. So I am here to set those precious, oblivious little babes in the woods straight. Consider this a PSA on the magical money-saving properties of the American public library.
You can save so much money by using the library
The library helps even the most prodigious readers save money on their book consumption.
I religiously update my Goodreads account so I know exactly how many books I read in a given year. Last year, 37 of the 53 books I read came from the library.
The average cost of an adult market trade paperback is about $15 ($13.95-$17.95 in 2024). So I personally saved about $550 in one year, just by using the library for my reading needs. And spoiler alert: the library offers a lot more for free than just books!
Let’s put my annual book savings into context. The average monthly payment for a used car is $520. The average student loan payment is $500. And the average monthly cost of groceries is $504. Given the barf-inducingly high cost of food right now and the fact that books are not, in fact, part of a balanced diet… personally, I’d rather spend that money on feeding myself than keeping myself entertained.
Is book ownership truly necessary?
“Oh, but I like to write in the margins and underline stuff and dog-ear the pages and then hold onto books for years and years so I know that they’re really mine and no one else’s!” Ok, so you’re bookwormier-than-thou. That’s cool—you do you!
But start thinking of all those book-personalizing (some would say “book-destroying”) habits not simply as part of the cost of reading, but as a luxury you have to pay for on top of the basic human right of library access. Luxuries are things we pay for with great intention, after careful consideration. They are not—and probably should not!—be free or even tax-subsidized.
So if frugal media consumption is your goal, maybe practice a little restraint and avoid marking up every book you read. Keep a notebook or try StoryGraph instead.
The library has so much more than books
Some people aren’t big readers. And if those people have made it to this point in the article… damn! I applaud your attention span and acknowledge your strange and alien existence. Quick question: What do you do indicate to fellow airplane passengers that you do not wish to be disturbed?
But for all you non-book-enjoyers out there, the library has so much more than just books. And if saving money is your goal, then you should probably check it out before you next go shopping for… literally anything, actually!
Other kinds of media
The library’s got multiple forms of media for education, entertainment, and edutainment. That includes…
- Audiobooks, which you can rent and stream on your phone
- Ebooks (which are books, yes, but I want to emphasize how essential they are for those who can’t physically make it to a library location)
- Music
- Movies and TV shows
- Magazines and newspapers (inside the paywall, baby!)
- Comic books and graphic novels
- Sheet music for various instruments
- Academic journals for research and education
- Technical manuals
- Subscription-based websites or online content behind paywalls (like Consumer Reports)
- Textbooks
I managed to make it through all four years of my undergrad without spending more than $100 on textbooks. The Boston Public Library was a 15-minute walk from campus, and between that and the school library, I literally never bought a textbook if I didn’t have to.
Unique experiences
Don’t sleep on the library as a weapon in your arsenal for fighting boredom! Local libraries host tons of live events, usually for free or a very low cost. Things like…
- Free or discounted admission to local museums, galleries, zoos, and aquariums
- Free or discounted admission to local sports arenas
- Concerts and recitals
- Live readings of poetry, plays, and new books
- Classes and informational lectures
- Fitness and yoga classes
- Facilitated play activities for families with children
- Clubs and study groups for teens and students
- Food trucks, especially in the summertime
- Community gardens
Useful facilities
The library is one of the few places in the United States where you can just be without buying something or paying someone. I’m not sure most people realize just how useful, comforting, and humanizing that is. So besides the indoor plumbing and heating, many public libraries boast amazing on-location conveniences such as…
- Free internet and wifi
- Dirt-cheap use of printers, scanners, and computers
- Free private rooms for meetings and rehearsals
- Lots of desks, tables, armchairs, and other workspaces
- Private study rooms
- Bathrooms and a warm place to hang out if that’s all you need for now
We recently published a guide to leaving home before 18. One of the things we recommended in that article was finding safe places to hang out when your home is unsafe. The first place we recommended? Your local library.
Free apps
Libraries pay for all kinds of apps and subscriptions so you don’t have to. As someone who plays a journalist and social critic on the internet, I can’t express to you how useful this has been for me in building our site. Here are just a few…
- Hoopla, Overdrive, and Libby for renting and streaming media
- PressReader for digital editions of newspapers and magazines
- Kanopy for movies
- LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) for free classes and tutorials
- Mango for learning a new language
- Headspace for guided meditations and sleep aids
Random stuff
All libraries rent actual, physical books. But lots of them rent other things too! Some of them are pretty straightforward, like pieces of expensive cutting-edge technology (I mean, that is what books used to be). But others are more niche! Like…
- Computers, tablets, and ereaders
- 3-D printers
- Digital and video cameras
- Green screens and lights
- Computer software
- Video game consoles
- Headphones
But also, there’s way weirder things!
- Camping gear, like tents
- Outdoor gear, like fishing poles and snow shoes
- Crafting supplies, like sewing machines
- Art supplies
- Bicycles, plus accessories like locks and pumps
- Seeds that you take in the spring and replenish in the fall
- Musical instruments
- Kitchen appliances
- Basic household tools
- Board games and lawn games
- THERAPY DOGS?!
Absolutely incredible. And it can all be yours if you just go to the damn library!
Mutual aid
During the COVID-19 pandemic, my local library put out donation bins full of food, baby supplies, toiletries, and basic household goods. They organized the donation drive and got the word out to those who needed help.
Libraries have also been at the center of many forms of mutual aid, including…
- Informational meetings for refugees and recently displaced people
- Support groups for people struggling with addiction, domestic abuse, or loss
- Meeting places for community organizers to plan protests and activism
- Donation drives for natural disasters
There is truly nowhere else in the world like a library for mutual aid: it’s non-partisan, non-religious, community-funded by definition, and safe and open to all.
Whatever the library doesn’t have, it can get
“But sometimes the library just doesn’t have the thing I want to consume when I want to consume it!” As a voracious reader, I can confirm this frustration. Fortunately, the library has systems in place to help.
There’s inter-library loan, which is where you can ask another library far, far away to lend a thing to your library branch so that your branch can then lend it to you. It takes a bit longer to get your free stuff this way, but it works and librarians are happy to make it happen for you. And beggars (for free shit anyway) can’t be choosers, amirite?
Or if it looks like there’s not a single library in a five-county radius that has the obscure printing of The Books of the Chilam Balam in the original K’iche’ Maya that you’re looking for, you can ask your library to order it.
That’s right: you have power over which books are stocked at your local library! All you have to do is fill out a request. They’ll buy the book and lend it out to you as often as you like.
Librarians are paladins in the war between ignorance and enlightenment
My mother-in-law is a librarian. She went to librarian school and I’m pretty sure what they taught her there was everything.
Librarians are trained to help you find knowledge. It’s a core part of their job. No matter how obscure or weird the topic, librarians will come through.
Need help writing that goddamn essay on Wuthering Heights for your 8 a.m. Brit Lit class? A librarian will supply you with every scholarly deconstruction ever written on that shitty excuse for a classic! (They’ll probably come up with your thesis statement for you just for fun too. It’ll be something like: “Heathcliff and Catherine deserve each other because they’re both miserable monsters who destroy everything they touch and think their inability to set aside personal pride and apologize once in awhile is somehow more important than the genuine suffering of others.”)
These are just some of the official research and advisory services the library might offer help with:
- Homework and research
- Resume writing and job hunting
- Free legal consultations for common legal problems
- Filing your taxes
- Credit repair services
- First-time home buying classes
- Standardized test prep sessions
- Citizenship classes
Librarians do some amazing shit on the daily: like helping an unemployed man write his resume; teaching an elderly woman how to use her first ereader; meeting a beleaguered parent at her car door with the stack of books she had on hold so she didn’t have to drag her four children inside.
Librarians are great people. They love to help their patrons, so go make use of them.
The library is under threat
Now that I’ve convinced you of the inherent worth of our nation’s public libraries, allow me to deputize you into the fight to save them.
Our libraries have been under attack for years now. Book bans and outright censorship are one thing, but extremists are also attempting to restrict library access for marginalized people; fire highly trained and educated librarians and replace them with untrained ideologues; privatize libraries to turn them into for-profit businesses; and close some libraries altogether, effectively killing community access to all the great services I talked about above.
And with the killdozer that is Project 2025 rampaging through our federal government, things are likely only going to get worse. We know from history that the people trying to ban books and censor diverse viewpoints are never the good guys. So I will just call these most recent attacks on our library system exactly what they are: an attack on our democracy itself.
Megan Phelps Roper, a former member of the Westboro Baptist Church, actually credits trips to her local library with getting her out of the viciously bigoted cult. The resources and librarians she encountered there helped release her from the hateful indoctrination she’d been fed since birth. And if that ain’t proof of concept, I don’t know what is!
How we fight back
Fortunately, the best way to defend your library is also the easiest:
Use the fucking library.
State and local governments apportion money to public services according to their use. So if lots of people are using the library, it’s pretty clear that it gets a lot of use and therefore needs a lot of funding.
Bring your friends! Sing your library’s praises! Explore all that your local library has to offer and spread the word.
You can also show up for your library when it is attacked. Attend town meetings and local government functions to express your support of the library. Protest any censorship or threats to your library’s funding. If someone in your community is coming for your library, let them know their book bans are gonna catch these hands!
It can feel useless and demoralizing to protest the giant, churning cog of the federal government in These Trying Times.™ It’s a lot easier—not to mention more effective—to use your voice to affect change on the small, local level. Your library and your community need you. Don’t be silent.
… except during SSR. Then you should really sit down, shut up, and read.
Go to the fucking library
Can’t afford to pay your Internet bill this month? The library has free wifi.
Hit your limit on shared Netflix devices? The library has binge-worthy shows to borrow.
Can’t afford a mechanic? The library has automobile maintenance manuals so you can learn how to change your own spark plugs and engine fluids.
Need to save on entertainment so you can focus on paying off debt? Libraries have pretty much everything, including new releases and bestsellers.
Can’t afford to buy your college textbooks? The library has them on hold.
Annoying roommate disrupting your studies? The library makes a great, peaceful workspace.
Got nowhere to meet a new freelancing client or discuss a group project? Reserve a room in the library for a few hours.
Need somewhere warm to pass a few hours? The library is a great safe place to pass the time.
Need help with almost literally anything? From sticking with NaNoWriMo to escaping domestic violence? C’mon, you’ve figured out the theme! Go. To. The. Library.
The stacks are filled with unicorns and talking puppies! Perfectly choreographed songbirds will accompany you (and your library finds) home! And you’ll swell to twice your normal size with the sense of satisfaction that comes from saving your hard-earned dough for more important things! Like seeing a doctor about all that swelling!
Seriously, just go to the goddamn library. I am begging you.
Readers, tell us about your local library! What’s your favorite thing about it? How have your librarians helped you in the past? If it wasn’t clear, we’re leaning pro-library and stanning all library-related comments.
They also often have subscriptions for foreign language learning courseware, song downloads, e-books, audiobooks…man I love my library ^_^
Oh, and lots of free events and groups! I’m in a free writing workshop held at my local library. #librarylove
They do indeed! Library wonders never cease!
I remember when I was in hardcore student loan payoff mode. The library was my primary source of entertainment.
Don’t get locked in with the first layer. Its a trap. The code is actually muti-layered using the diffie hellman method. Once you learn this the first layer won’t box your mind and you will be that much closer to true enlightenmemt with victory as a result in the place pain as the result of knowing. I’m not there yet but I’m going to stay free and find these puzzles of the multiverse to help yall out when I learn them and get my piece of mind back.
I wish the libraries in my country were as stocked with books as the one that I went to the last time I traveled to America. It’s so amazing how many books you can find on so many topics. I did not want to leave. The library in my town has mostly empty shelves. At least the children’s section looks cute.
Empty shelves! At a library! Oh, that breaks my heart! America has a lot of problems, but it’s true that even small towns usually have lovely full, free libraries.
Oh this is so sad! One of my most cherished childhood memories is spending whole days in my hometown library, just browsing and reading while sitting on beanbag chairs between the stacks. It was cozy and probably kept me out of trouble, as my mom could always call the librarians to check up on me.
Where do you live? Not gonna lie–I’m a little scared that the new administration is going to gut the library budget and we’ll end up the same way.
I worked in my local library system (my city was large enough to have a whole SYSTEM! bless) for 3 years and volunteered there for another 3, and I am *still* finding new resources. God bless libraries.
Preach!!!
I love living in a city with a whole system of library branches. I will sing their praises till the day I die.
You know it is amazing. In my next blog post, I’m covering the “FREEBIES” from our library.
It speaks volumes that ours now supplies meals for children to supplement the “free meals” program through schools, as schools are out for summer.
I love going to my fucking library!
Literally thank god for the public library. Children would be starving without it.
Can’t wait to read the next post!
I LOVE THIS
And we love you!!! Thanks for reading!
PREACH IT!! I’m a proud library card carrying book lover who grew up with a librarian aunt. Half my childhood was spent buried in a pile of books taller than me, with nary a dime spent. I went on to work a part time job at my campus library for 6 years (undergrad + masters), and have ALWAYS gotten a library card no matter where I lived (4 states now…) Spread the good word fellow frugal entertainment lover! Librarians are angels on earth.
I feel like we need to internet hug now. <3
3D printers (I am not shitting you).
Free passes to local museums, zoos, etc.
Book clubs for ALL ages and genders (NOT just for older women).
A library store where you can buy those books you HAVE to own for about $1.
Queues for popular books, movies, etc. Get in line and the library will pull (or ship in from other branches) when it is available and email you to come pick up. They may even offer a drive-thru window!
Be sure to see if you can get a card from nearby library systems to extend your options. (Texas, for example, has a TexShare card that allows you to get a card at virtually any Texas library that you are willing to travel to once or twice a year to renew.)
And here is a sampling of the digital services your library may offer – all in the comfort of your own home.
Freegal: download a set number of songs each week which are yours to keep forever without being a copyright pirate.
Overdrive/Libby or Axis360 or Cloud Library or RBDigital: access to digital books and/or audio books. Library selects which books to own and you can check out so many at a time (5 is common). RBDigital also has a comic book offshoot called Comics Plus. Overdrive has Kindle versions of books.
Hoopla: the king of digital books and also has audio books, movies, TV shows, and comics. You get so many check outs per month, but all items are available at all times (no queues). They carry a lot of small publishers, so if you want speciality books like vegan cookbooks, M/M romances, local history, published theses, religious books, etc, this is the best place to look.
Kanopy: works like the book options above, except it is digital movies, especially independent and foreign films.
Flipster or Zinio: digital magazines. Your library picks which ones to carry.
This is a very partial list, so check with your library website!
I want to “Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” my local library because I love it so much.
Coming in somewhat late (er, a year and a half late) to say my library offers library sleep-overs as prizes for the top readers in the kids summer reading clubs. They are hugely popular and apparently very fun, and we (the staff) always come in the next day to find little pranks or decorations hidden around the place. Somehow the Halloween skeleton always ends up sitting at my desk.
But I’m shy and always feel like I’m bothering the nice librarian people when I ask for help
I haven’t checked out a book from my school library in 4 years of going there because I’m afraid they’ll judge me
They’re not really “happy” to do things for me, it’s just their (low-paying) jobs (same with retail workers)
Nooooo, this just isn’t so!
Most librarians have a master’s degree in library science. That’s six years of schooling, at minimum. They study for years to do this because they are extremely passionate about it! And they are paid 2-3x as much as the average hourly retail worker.
When I have this kind of thought, it helps me to flip it around. If you were working at your job and someone needed your help, but didn’t ask because they didn’t want to bother you, how would you feel? Not good, right? Open your heart and let the librarians in, girl!!
What Kitty said!!!
Also, if you’re a student, your school’s library might be staffed with work study students. They’re your peers! They’re just like you! Trust me, you’re not bothering them by (politely) asking for them to do what they’re paid to do.
If I lived in a hippie commune *cringe* with nine human beings, and that many dogs, I would be escaping to the library too. When I was in bankruptcy for 7 years that’s one of the things I did for entertainment. It’s a win, win, win, win.
We’ll see how many exist down the road.
This is awesome! As a librarian-in-training I love seeing posts like this about the library!
Why thank you! And we heart librarians so damn much.
Excellent call out here. I recently learned I get a free Newspapers.com subscription as well, which is an awesome archive. Though now that I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, I try to support the local bookstore when possible, especially for a book I wouldn’t mind keeping on the physical bookshelf. I am the same way with Goodreads, but not nearly as prolific a reader!