My local library has a couple 3d printers, random physical things you can check out (including power tools and a couple Nintendo Switches), they do little maker / art events, in addition to obviously you can go by and chill or do work without having to buy a coffee. Honestly libraries are so wonderful that it's not surprising that some Powers That Be are starting to catch on and try to make life difficult for them. It's like a little glimpse of a better world you can go and experience any time you want.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
179 points (98.4% liked)
You Should Know
32162 readers
1 users here now
YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with YSK.
All posts must begin with YSK. If you're a Mastodon user, then include YSK after @youshouldknow. This is a community to share tips and tricks that will help you improve your life.
Rule 2- Your post body text must include the reason "Why" YSK:
**In your post's text body, you must include the reason "Why" YSK: It’s helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. **
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-YSK posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-YSK posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
If you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- The majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities:
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
Credits
Our icon(masterpiece) was made by @clen15!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
My library has a whole mini maker space in it. FDM 3D printers, tons of textile stuff, a knock-off cricut, and a load of simple tools. No bigger equipment for wood or metal working but they have a relationship with a local "tool library" that will check out equipment like that for home use.
Public libraries are the best. Also, if your local library is very small, see if they're part of a larger network that affords you extra resources or a bigger catalog. See if the nearest large metro city has eCards to check out digital materials; I have one that costs me a paltry $22/yr and gives me access to tens of thousands of ebooks/audiobooks and Hoopla, Kanopy, and free online classes (e.g. How to Cook Healthy, How to Become a Master Gardener, etc.).
The value of public libraries cannot be understated.
Do these services have DRM? If so, I'll stay away from them.
Of course they do, like any streaming platform. However, you can only access them through your library membership. They don't have subscription plans for the general public, afaik.
Did you suppose libraries would allow you to download copyrighted movies for free?
Well yes, that would be quite cool. We can't have nice things, I guess.
What do you mean? You can get a library card, often for free (in the US) or for a relative pittance, and you then have access to these streaming platforms and other media. I fail to see how it's a loss of "nice things."
I prefer not to have someone else have control of my PC. That's why I pirate content. I don't want the drm to ever become a root user on my PC so that I (god forbid) don't download movies
DRM doesn't control your PC, it controls what you can do with files (usually through encryption via an app) and these streaming platforms are part of publicly funded libraries; they have a vested interest in not fucking up people's computers.
I don't know where you got the idea that DRM could become root user of your PC, but I think you should go research what DRM is, how it works, and why people are often against it. I think you're conflating DRM with anti-mod/cheat software, a kind of DRM, and that specific form generally has a fraught history with kernel-level access.
But you shouldn't fear DRM simply because it's DRM.
Oh, I did mix up anti cheat and normal DRM. But I'll prefer not to use DRM services.
Some of the more metro ones often have tool libraries, art you can rent, and other neat misc resources too.
Edit: also free trips to local museums or zoos/aquariums
I used the online databases to get the paid for consumer reports reviews of washers and dryers. I didn't care for their recommendations, just the data.
Our local library also has free passes to local city and state places like aquariums, parks, etc. that usually change an admission. They are hard to get, but free isn't always easy!
It may not just be your local library, either. In some states, the larger city libraries get enough State funding that e-book borrowing privileges are available to anyone in the state. You might even be able to apply online, and start borrowing e-books without ever having to go to a branch in that city.
I know that in NY State, access to the NY, Brooklyn, and Queens libraries are available to anyone in the State.
When we moved to a new town, we went to the library every day to work online until our internet got hooked up. The main branch in town has a switch that you can play upstairs, and a bunch of 3d printers. They even have the latest video games that you can rent; I wanted to give it a try but I’ve got too many in the backlog already lol.
That reminds me that my local library has WiFi hot spots you can check out for a week at a time. Sounds really helpful for someone who needs the internet for work, and can’t easily get to the library every day.
That would have been so helpful. Instead we burned through both of our mobile data so she could do meetings in the early morning, and would head the the library after to get everything else done (including anything we needed to look up because our data was over haha).
Not the libraries where I live. Due to no government for two years the funding/money was strangled and so they haven't been able to buy anything for two years. Popular authors like terry pratchet only have like 4 books in the library and the ebooks are copies of what the Libra has. To make things worse it's not just the library in the city closet to me but will be libraries across the country because they all share the same system so get their funding from the same place.
This is great! I've read so many ebooks and listened to audio books from my library.
Free passes to local museums too
Many libraries also offer watch credits for Kanopy, whose catalog of videos includes many of the Great Courses.
Our local library even offers free access to things like LinkedIn Learning which are essentially video courses on thousands of topics. This is basically a savings of $40 a month.