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Introduction
In July 2018, Forbes published an editorial by Long Island University economist Panos Mourdoukoutas, titled “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money.” The core message was that “Amazon has provided something better than a local library without the tax fees,” with its new initiative Amazon Go combining “a library with a Starbucks” (Mourdoukoutas, 2018). Within hours, the piece received over 200,000 views and was met with backlash on the news site and on Twitter, prompting a retraction from Forbes. The responses on Twitter are telling. Many people referred to their usage of public libraries and their experiences as personal beneficiaries of these spaces. A number of respondents also stressed the value of libraries, in terms of the community and cultural life they engender, as worthwhile tax expenditure. Finally, social media comments emphasized free access and the democratic principles of libraries as opposed to monopolistic for-profit corporations like Amazon (see Nadler and Cicillinie, 2020).
The outpouring of support following the publication of the editorial is revealing of the values and agendas inscribed in public library discourse, particularly in the context of the USA. As Mattern comments, “One key misperception of those who proclaim the library's obsolescence is that its function as a knowledge institution can be reduced to its technical services and information offerings” (2014). In contrast, Twitter comments foregrounded benefits that are harder to quantify, notably libraries' contributions to community, democracy and the equitable distribution of knowledge and resources (e.g. music and ebooks). The fact that they provide free Internet usage, enabling online participation in services relating to health care access, housing, voting and job searching, also highlights the significant role of libraries as a public good.
The Forbes controversy raises larger questions about the role of non-governmental public entities in digital spaces and how these are constructed and used by digital and analog publics. Part of this conversation centers on digital cultural content and access to digital holdings, which are increasingly important and inform the “public” framing of non-commercial online initiatives during the last ten years, including the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), the Internet Archive (IA) and the Wikimedia Foundation. However, the privatized infrastructure of the Internet mediates engagement with these holdings and signals the simultaneous restructuring...