Don't get me wrong, I LOVE libraries.

But this article makes no sense to me.

Of course, you don’t have to be homeless to use a library, but that’s the point.

My university library sweeps every floor every night to keep homeless people out.

go inside and stay as long as you want, sit in its armchairs, read the news, write your dissertation, charge your phone, use the bathroom, check your email, find the address of a hotel or homeless shelter.

I can do that in any building on campus. I've co-opted lecture halls into Return of the Jedi screenings. I've slept in my Physics department, and charged my phone in a hallway of the math department.

libraries are becoming more important, not less, to our communities and our democracy

We're a Republic, not a democracy.

the importance of maintaining print archives of information since physical ink and paper is much more stable than digital

I can store 10 copies of a volume of literature in 10 separate bookshelves. Or I can store hundreds of thousands of copies of them digitally. One of those is MUCH more stable and safe than the other.

there must be some kind of common cultural institution filled with pews of comfy chairs and the musk of paper

Why do I have to BE anywhere to read? I can read in bed, or the in middle of a forrest. When I'm reading the least important thing in the world to me is WHERE I'm reading.

Take the old gripe about homeless people in libraries—that college kids can’t get their work done because people with social, psychological and hygienic disorders are overrepresented among the stacks. But when libraries have become the only quiet indoor place for those who otherwise live on the street, there’s no way around it.

I don't understand. Not in the least. You think that the only place a homeless person can go is the library, and they only go there because it's quiet? THEY GO THERE BECAUSE IT'S WARM!