Are libraries a useless, sentimental indulgence in waste?
I think yes.
With the advent of simple electronic book readers, and virtually unlimited access to uncopyrighted literature via the internet, libraries are today an inferior way to access knowledge both in terms of speed and variety. Brick and mortar libraries cannot compete. They are dinosaurs.
Better to fund simple Internet cafes where people can access Internet search engines, such as Google.
Libraries today are a more insidious force in our society than that of a simple albatross around the neck of the taxpayer. In fact, they are an antisocial, antimoral, antidemocratic force that should really be opposed by all right thinking people.
Many people do not remember when librarians stood up for the rights of pedophiles to access pedophilia from the public library. Indeed, librarians lobbied extensively for the right to provide access to pornography in public libraries. In fact, libraries today are the main trafficker in pornography.
We should not be surprised by this. Libraries have been utterly abandoned by the middle and upper classes in favor of easier access to all forms of written material via the internet. What libraries have been left with is a sort of bottom-feeder clientele of poor, semi-literates, seeking access to government forms and illicit materials. While it is possible that chronically unemployed persons do need access to government forms and such, they hardly need libraries. Indeed, a free computer at the local police stations would more than suffice.
Do not support your local library. It is at best a drain on public resources and at worst an aggressively anti-social influence on society.