Americans Want to Read. Give Them Books.; The New York Times, May 31, 2026

 Brian Bannon, The New York Times; Americans Want to Read. Give Them Books.

"More New Yorkers are borrowing books from the New York Public Library today than 15 years ago; borrowing is up 27 percent since 2010. And yet America is facing a book-reading crisis...

Libraries themselves were throwing up barriers to reading...

The reading crisis is real. But we don’t need new inventions to build a reading city. Exempt books from sales taxes the way we exempt prescription medicine. Invest in library collections and reduce wait lists for books. Open nonprofit and hybrid bookstoreswhen the market alone cannot sustain them. Build on the models that already work: reading in laundromats, libraries in transit systems, books in barbershops, classrooms, homes and pediatric offices."

Beatle late than never – stolen 'Life' magazine featuring Fab 4 returned to library after 50 years; News 5 Cleveland, February 28, 2019

Ian Cross, News 5 Cleveland; Beatle late than never – stolen 'Life' magazine featuring Fab 4 returned to library after 50 years

"Cuyahoga County Public Library representatives may be doing the twist and shout after they received the Life magazine from 1968, along with a money order for $100 and a letter that read: 

“I stole this magazine from the Parma Ridge Road Library when I was a kid. I’m sorry I took it. I’ve enclosed a check for the late fee.” 

In a Facebook post, library officials thanked the anonymous paperback burglar for returning the “borrowed” magazine that was able to get back to where it once belonged."

In San Jose, Poor Find Doors to Library Closed; New York Times, 3/30/16

Carol Pogash, New York Times; In San Jose, Poor Find Doors to Library Closed:

"The concept of free public libraries gained support in the 1830s and was popularized by the industrialist Andrew Carnegie , who helped build 1,689 libraries around the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s on the notion that all people should have an opportunity to improve themselves. But public libraries like San Jose’s are struggling to find money to pay for books and services.

In San Jose, libraries began charging 50 cents a day for an overdue book, and what Jill Bourne, who become director of libraries in 2013, called “an exorbitant processing fee” of $20 for lost materials. Those high fines have come at a cost.

In impoverished neighborhoods, where few residents have broadband connections or computers, nearly a third of cardholders are barred from borrowing or using library computers. Half of the children and teenagers with library cards in the city owe fines. Around 187,000 accounts, or 39 percent of all cardholders, owe the library money, Ms. Bourne said.

Outsiders might think that “everyone in Silicon Valley is affluent and hyperconnected,” said Mayor Samuel T. Liccardo. He represents San Jose’s one million residents, 40 percent of whom are immigrants. “We still have a digital divide.”"