Skip to content

Comment on Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalledparent

Comments

Libraries had papers too.

Have.

Practically every public library in the US (over 17,000 as of right now) currently, today, has online access to local and national newspapers.

My public library offers free online access to the following national newspapers:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlantic (HAH!)

The Chicago Tribune

The Los Angeles Times

The New York Times

USA Today

The Wall Street Journal

They also offer access to local newspapers, print and digital magazines, foreign-language newspapers, historical newspaper archives, scientific journals, and more.

I live in a highly-populated, urban and suburban, highly-affluent region. To test and see if smaller public libraries have access these resources I went to the website of the public library system of the rural Indiana county my grandparents lived in. They have one branch serving 28,000 people in a poorer region of the country where average household income is somewhere around $48,000. They have access to newspapers, magazines, and scientific journals through the Indiana Digital Library system.

Then I went to the library of the poorest county (19,000/$22k) in the entire country and did the same thing: WV Reads provides access to all of that, too.

All for $0.00-- today.

Not "had", "have".

Support, by using, your local library.

This is all good news, I suppose, but I think that if it were widely adopted the system would fail. I doubt the libraries pay enough to support the news rooms if everyone tossed aside their subscriptions and started using the library's subscription.

To your knowledge are these news subscriptions things that can be accessed from my own devices in the comfort of my own home via a library card or is it something I have to go to a library in person and sit at their computer to read?

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.