Every town should have a library of things, maybe I'll start one in the next few years...
Why Shop? In Maine, the Library of Things Has It All (Almost)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/climate/maine-library-of-things.html
Discussion
Libraries basically truncate the possible sales of authors. Why buy a book from an author when you can just borrow it for a while and return it? Plus the fact that they are mostly state funded makes it even more insidious.
When you stop seeing the world as something you can extract value from, and instead see it as something you can add value to, you see the value in sharing freely.
Making things in meat space costs materials, and doing this at a deficit will make any future contributions impossible. You are not "extracting value" by getting renumeration. You can only add value by being in a position to give of yourself.
I agree with the view of Benjamin Franklin in this regard, when he commented on his decision to decline a patent on a new type of efficient wood burning stove:
"Gov'r. Thomas was so pleas'd with the construction of this stove as described in (the pamphlet), that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin'd it from a principle which has ever weighed on me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."
- The autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
If I were to ever publish a book, I would encourage people to read it even if they couldn't afford to purchase a copy. Those who appreciate it enough to own a copy would later buy one, and that's good enough for me.
Patents are a different issue altogether. I'm not suggesting someone can protect information. If you want a library, buy the book, and reprint the copies yourself. It's the fact that the state steal from everyone, uses the stolen proceeds to buy a few copies of a book, then charges people for borrowing the books they stole money to get.
Publishers print books at a loss for the future sales to eventually make money. If you publish a book, you will want to recoup some of the cost, libraries work against that.
Patents are bad but so are libraries.