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The Portland Mercury reports:
For many years, local libraries have allowed patrons to check out physical media—from vinyl LPs to eight tracks to cassettes to CDs—free of charge. Last month, Multnomah County Library launched the Library Music Project, an online platform that's continuing this legacy of accessibility by curating an online collection of albums from local artists [...]
Anyone can stream albums from more than 120 local artists on the Library Music Project's user-friendly website, but to make playlists or download songs, you must log in with a Multnomah County Library card. [...]
It's not totally uncharted territory—libraries in Madison, Wisconsin; Edmonton, Alberta; Nashville, Tennessee; and Seattle, Washington, all have similar programs in place.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday July 31 2018, @12:23AM (1 child)
- Library: they have quite a good computer section.
There was a period of time when I would point out that fact to homeless people, then suggest they learn web design by hanging out at the library.
I stopped doing that when some perfectly healthy - at least as far as I could ascertain - guy protested that to work as a web designer would result in the loss of his disability benefits.
Since 1994, vast thundering herds of well-intentioned people have urged me to apply for disability. I refused at first with the explanation that "disability is a trap: once you get on disability you _can't_ get off" then later for the reason that "I want that scarce resource to go to those who really need it".
I whiled away three months in Washington's Western State Hospital For The Criminally Insane by coding my iOS App [warplife.com] in a notebook with a pencil.
Towards the end of my court-ordered inpatient admission I was informed that I would not be discharged until I had applied for Social Security Disability Insurance. That I don't regard my mental illness [warplife.com] as a disability fell on deaf ears.
But then the hospital's patient financial coordinator dropped a dime to the Social Security Administration to inquire as to whether I was eligible for disability given that I whiled away three months coding an iOS Apps on paper with a pencil:
"No." "Why not?" "Because he's _working_."
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 31 2018, @12:54AM
No the shelves aren't quite empty. There are books nobody wants, and for good reason. The public library collection includes books on subjects such as Flash and WiMAX, obsolete technologies from ten years ago.
A person, homeless or otherwise, would learn more by owning a smartphone than by wasting any time in a library.