YHK - yet another hacker news clone

It reminds of one of the later scenes from Secret Life of Walter Mitty when Sean (photographer) decides not to take a picture of the elusive snow leopard in front of them.

> Walter Mitty: Are you going to take it?

> Sean O'Connell: Sometimes I don't. If I like a moment, for me, personally, I don't like to have the distraction of the camera. I just want to stay in it.

> Walter Mitty: Stay in it?

> Sean O'Connell: Yeah. Right there. Right here.

Very true. If everyone on the planet was allowed to walk over the great pyramids of Egypt, they would be pounded into dust. Sometimes it is better just to observe and move on.

Sometimes those places die out from lack of visitors.

Japan already has a range of cafes that let you read books, manga, or listen to music

There's a library in the neighboring suburb that has a little cafe in the lobby.

When visiting Delft in the Netherlands I was extremely jealous that the library there not only had a cafe, but that the cafe served wine and the whole place was open until like 11pm. Haven’t encountered anything like that in the US.

I think at least a couple do have cafes here in Göteborg

This would definitely be a great thing to add.

One thing that I don't like about American culture is that people are a little too hesitant about adding 'retail' into publicly-owned spaces. There's a reflexive attitude of that being A Bad Thing, even though most Americans who visit, say, Japan, really appreciate the various shops and kiosks they have in transit stations over there.

I also really enjoyed in Germany when at the top of some hike there'd be an inn+restaurant, something Americans seem to treat as nearly anathema.

Near where I live, there is a library facility that has a cafe. However, it's not a regular book-lending library... it's run by the country library system, but it's actually a free coworking space. They even have a music room with 4 stringed instruments, a computer, and an electronic drum kit as well as a podcasting studio.

The library in my town had coffee, but it was more like a library that had a little coffee than a cafe with a library, if that makes sense.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library's top floor has a cafeteria.

The British Library appears to have 7 cafes https://www.bl.uk/visit/eat-drink-shop

In Seattle they're mostly homeless shelters.

SF folks: check out https://www.milibrary.org/

Libraries have always had events and activities related to books and other things not book related.

People are just now noticing them. This is a great thing and I hope it sticks.

I believe people are getting sick of every interaction being monetized and are finally seeking out spaces where you can learn and interact with others without that threat.

When I was a kid in the 1990s and 2000s, libraries were already de facto community centers as well in the Bay, LA, and BC.

>I wonder if there's a resurgence across the world where libraries are places of community sharing.

I feel there is, but I am not yet seeing anything concrete.

> I wonder if there's a resurgence across the world where libraries are places of community sharing.

Just last week new stats came out [1] that library attendance by young people in the Netherlands is going up again, so possibly!

[1] https://nos.nl/artikel/2630399-meer-locaties-meer-bezoekers-...

It's the same here in the various city libraries of Berlin both in the state library as well in the various branches across town.

State: https://www.zlb.de/veranstaltungsuebersicht/

And this is by no means special. I'm pretty sure this is the case for most major city libraries in Europe.

Other than that lots of people do their work or homework there, hangout in the outside spaces, book rooms for community meetings. With some more budget, I think there's a lot to be said for these to become default community activity/collaboration spaces.

I see libraries throwing out large amounts of books, and then chasing non-book things that became laughably obsolete in a few years, such as:

- audio books on little devices to plug headphones into, which have cheap rechargeable batteries that seem to be mostly dead - collections of children’s toys in a toy room that after a few years are missing most of their pieces - large collections of DVDs - computer labs full of computers that are old/slow and then need all kinds of restrictions due to a handful of antisocial people using them for inappropriate things, leaving them nearly unusable for anyone else - fancy 3D printing labs containing hardware without enough volunteers to teach people how to use it, and with hardware going obsolete or unmaintained/broken - a seed bank that had obviously not had any seed packets taken out in years

My local library is eliminating a section of books in order to build a “sensory room”. Nothing against sensory rooms, but I’m not sure it was a good trade for yet another skip full of books. (There is a YMCA next door that would be a more appropriate place for a sensory room - and indeed it has one.)

On a recent library trip, despite all that, the dehumidifier was not working and I saw signs of permanent humidity damage to books in the archive. This is the one thing libraries should be doing: preserving books.

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User name relevant

It's true. But I'm just happy it's not another AI post

A wild take I have seen was "Japan is the white mans Wakanda". It is a rough way of saying something important.

There are many parts of Japanese culture that is seen as desirable and aspirational to others. The sense of social cohesion and politeness that is projected is seen as a good thing. Yes, the reality is more rough than is projected, Japan has its issues just like everywhere else. But when looking in from the outside, there are a lot of things that can be seen as goals for others to achieve.

This is the same reason why we are seeing a lot more positive takes on China nowadays. The image of a society that is progressing in a way considered desirable. It grabs folks attention, there is also the novelty of it all as it these of nations that look similar but different.

Not to play into the bait, but there are a lot of people here who live in Japan. Funnily, during JST work hours, I notice more jp related posts in the front page, because well, NA is sleeping.

Do you want to understand what this obsession is about? You probably need to visit Japan more.

In the US, private libraries tend to be non-circulating, archival, specialist, or owned by private schools.

Claiming Takeo City Library is a private operation is factually incorrect because it is strictly "publicly owned" by the city government. In fact, the city owns the land and building, and pays the private company, Culture Convenience Club (CCC), a management fee from local tax revenues to run the public library. Conversely, CCC pays monthly rent to the city to operate the Starbucks and bookstore inside. Since the entire facility is publicly owned and funded by taxpayers, CCC has zero ownership and is merely a contracted operator.

> The most interesting thing in the article to me is that there was a dual library/bookstore...

At least in California, libraries often have a community run used bookstore whose proceeds are used to help the library run community programming.

None of the libraries in New York City are publicly owned. NYPL, BPL, and QPL are all private nonprofits that receive public funding. It’s an odd arrangement.

They are common here. Membership is usually a dollar or two a month. Members store their books their on a kind of permanent loan so they don’t have to store so many books in their house. It’s unstaffed and just run by its members, and members replace any books they lose.

There is a private engineering library I visited in TN (anyone can drop in during business hours) that aims to preserve books that engineers used before everything became computer assisted.

I tried browsing bookstores on the mainland but found basically all the books are shrinkwrapped in plastic.

Very boring indeed (but the covers are nice I guess).

Is Taiwan similar?

I do something similar with boardgames. I like to import foreign language games or pick them when traveling. They don’t need to be in English for me to enjoy and appreciate them. I have games from Germany, France, Spain, Japan, China, Brazil, and the UK.

My favorite is Kolejka, a Polish game about queuing at nearly empty stores during communism.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/85325/kolejka

Book covers, seeing what kinda stuff is being talked about, the general vibe of the space itself.

Lots of fun to be had wandering about, and unless you're looking at a thing where the script is really indecipherable you can kinda figure out what the topic du jour is even in foreign languages.

It's fun to look at book covers and imagine what's in the contents too.

> books are just knowledge containers

For you, that's the case. Books can also be a souvenir of a time and place or a person or even just an objet d'art.

One example is the family bible that's passed down from one generation to the next. That book might contain handwriting of your grand parents recording the birth of your mom. Surely you can see how that might be special to somebody?

The fast food franchises are likely less interested in loiterers than customer turnover.

i guess they're in relatively separate spaces? that's how it's like in my local area in the UK

I'm finding that libraries in the UK outside of big cities are resembling those in the article, just nowhere near as popular, and with a more pedestrian book selection

Honestly, the share lounge idea is not a bad one, at least in the major cities. It can be pretty difficult to find a working space that isn't a tiny pod or a monthly commitment.

That said, the only Tsutaya share lounge I've seen was basically a glorified Starbucks, which is not so appealing.